Megan's Law Essay

When the life of an innocent human being is threatened, it enrages the average American citizen. However, when that life belongs to a child it hits harder for most. Protecting children is at the forefront of most Americans’ minds, especially parents who understand what it is like to have children impacted against criminal acts. The passage of Megan’s Law has led to an improvement in the awareness and understanding of sex offenders, but ultimately does not reduce the number of sex crimes against children due to the many faults within the law. As of May 17, 1996, Megan’s Law was enacted by Congress. Established to help protect children, it mandated that all sex offenders register with the local authorities and the legal database with registered

This was not the first act by Timmendequas; in fact, he had already been convicted of and labeled as a sex offender. On July 29, 1944 little Megan walked into the house of three registered sex offenders, with the promise made by Timmendequas, that she was going to see and play with a puppy. In the quiet, middle-class neighbor in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, Megan did not think twice about entering the house across the street. The neighborhood appeared safe to the point Megan’s parents would let her ride her bike up and down the street with other children that lived nearby. Yet, when Megan walked through the door, she would never walk back out. Megan was raped, choked to death and then thrown into a toy chest, which Timmendequas would dump at a park not too far from the neighborhood (Goldman). When Timmendequas was examined, he was noted for having “bite marks” on his hands, therefore it is assumed that Megan did fight back (Goldman). When Megan was found the medical examiners were able to link the DNA in Megan’s private area to Timmendequas, but also residue from his hand was found on her teeth when she had bitten Timmendequas (Harris). The Kanka family had no

The percentage of sex offenders living among the United States has increased over the years. The specific states analyzed for the increase in percentages are New Jersey, Florida, and Virginia. According to Parents for Megan’s Law the number of registered sex offenders in New Jersey in 2005 was 10,464, while the total population was 8.65 million, equaling a percentage of 0.121% of the population being registered sex offenders. However, in 2016 the number of registered sex offenders rose to 18,659 people and the population increased 8.98 million, making the new percentage 0.207% (“Parents for Megan’s Law”). According to Sex Offender Map the top cities in New Jersey for registered sex offenders include; Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, and Edison (“Sex Offender Map”). Yet this increasing trend is not confined to New Jersey – according to _______, Florida and Virginia also saw an increase in the number of registered sex offenders between 2005 and 2006. In Florida in 2005 there was 33,990 registered offenders in a population of 17.84 million meaning the percentage of sex offenders was 0.191% of the total population. It nearly doubled in 2016 when the number of registered sex offenders rose to 69,654 with a population of 20.66 million, increasing the percentage to 0.337% (“Parents of Megan’s Law”). A majority of the