Megan's Law Essay

Introduction and description
Its relevance to social work, especially vulnerable populations

There is a correlation between Megan’s Law and how it relates to social work. Megan’s Law informs community members where sexual offenders reside and tries to keep offenders a safe distance from schools and children. The law demands child sexual offenders names are added to a registry. A social worker needs to understand how this law not only affects the victim of child abuse, but also the offender. A social worker works for children’s welfare. This may involve working directly with a child that has been assaulted and exposed to sexual trauma. A population that social workers often work with is children who are removed from their homes or in a home

This law is named for a child named Megan, who was raped and murdered by her next-door neighbor. Megan’s parents did not know the person living right next door to them was a child sexual offender. They felt that knowing this information may have saved their daughter. In order to save other children, Megan’s family worked to have the addresses of child sexual offenders made public. The family decided to take political action and got a law passed stating that child sex offenders need to be on a sexual offender registry. This notification system is for the public and also lets the community know when an offender is being released and where the offender will be living. The family managed to make this a law in every state in the United States. The family worked in their home state to make a law and then worked to make it a federal law. Megan’s Law was passed in 1994. Two years later “the U.S Congress passed Megan’s Law as an amendment to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children’s Act.” (Charles Montaldo). The Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994 was similar to Megan’s Law, however, Jacob’s Act stated the registry was only for law enforcement. The Megan’s Law amendment that was added to the Jacob’s Act required that every state in the United States have a child sexual offender registry and a notification system that informed the community when a child sexual offender was being released into the

In order for this law to be effective a registry that is current and can be used easily by the public needs to be in place. However, there seems to be flaws with state’s child abuse registries. According to Fox News, a parent of two children found his name on the registry. An individual should be found guilty of a crime before being add to this registry. A person’s life may be gravely affected once their name is added to the registry. (CITE FOX NEWS) In addition, to finding wrong names on the registry, Amy Engeler reported “the biggest issues is keeping the registries up-to-date.” Some states are doing a better job of keeping their registries current; however, there are many states who are struggling to keep lists current. Unfortunately, offenders move and often do not report their correct address. Some offenders never even sign up in the first place. Many states report there are not enough resources to follow up with sexual offenders and make sure the registry is current. There needs to be resources and procedures in place to make sure offenders actually sign up for the registry and when they move make sure they reported their new and current