Megans Law Seeks To Provide Answers With List
The name Megan’s Law refers to a series of laws designed to protect children from known sex offenders in the United States.
Under the laws, authorities are require to make public the names, addresses and photographs of registeresd offenders, as well as the nature of their crime, and date of imprisonment.
These laws followed the horrific abduction, rape and murder of Megan Kanka in 1994.
Her parents circulated a petition and founded the Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation by her parents, Richard and Maureen.
The petition gained over 400,000 signatures,and the foundation was formed on the grounds that “Every parent should have the right to know if a dangerous sexual predator moves into their neighborhood.”
New Jersey passed the first of the “Megan’s Laws” in 1994.
Other states followed, and at the US Federal level is known as Sexual Offender (Jacob Wetterling) Act of 1994, or The Jacob Wetterling Act.
The National Alert Registry
Meganslaw.com is the National Alert website designed to locate offenders in a given area by submitting a zip code.
While the law provides some degree of protection to children, its opponents argue that it infringes on the tights of offenders who have served their time, and may cause them to reoffend.
Others may claim that publishing these details can lead to vigilante action.
Lists of offenders are commonly known as Megan’s List in the US.
As s result of Megan’s Law, and the National Alert registry, there have been moves to set up a sex offenders registry in other countries as well.
Canada’s National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) came into force on December 15, 2004.