Megan's Law

[Japher]

A new California law, Assembly Bill 488 (Nicole Parra), sponsored by the Attorney General now provides the public with Internet access to detailed information on registered sex offenders.

This expanded access allows the public for the first time to use their personal computers to view information on sex offenders required to register with local law enforcement under California's Megan's Law. Previously, the information was available only by personally visiting police stations and sheriff offices or by calling a 900 toll-number. The new law was given final passage by the Legislature on August 24, 2004 and signed by the Governor on September 24, 2004.

For more than 50 years, California has required sex offenders to register with their local law enforcement agencies. However, information on the whereabouts of these sex offenders was not available to the public until the implementation of the Child Molester Identification Line in July 1995. The information available was further expanded by California's Megan's Law in 1996 (Chapter 908, Stats. of 1996).

California's Megan's Law provides the public with certain information on the whereabouts of sex offenders so that members of our local communities may protect themselves and their children. Megan's Law is named after seven-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a known child molester who had moved across the street from the family without their knowledge. In the wake of the tragedy, the Kankas sought to have local communities warned about sex offenders in the area. All states now have a form of Megan's Law.

The law is not intended to punish the offender and specifically prohibits using the information to harass or commit any crime against an offender.

This site allows you to search for registered sex offenders within the state of California. For most cases you get their address and a photo of the person. Interesting.

What do you think? Is this a good idea or not? I can see both sides

[Sava]

good idea

hunting down sex offenders vigilante style

[Whaleboy]

Irresponsible, damaging and stupid. If the government needs to resort to vigilanism in order to protect children, then it's saying a lot about the governments programme for dealing with ex cons and sex offenders.

Needless to say, revenge has absolotely no place in justice and I am thoroughly opposed to anything that would facilitate that, Megan's Law and it's UK equivalent, the proposed "Sarah's Law" (after Sarah Paine).

[Tuberski]

I don't agree with Whaleboy often, but I have to on this one.

This is a little too much information available to anyone.

ACK!

[lightblue]

That's scary, will the state government be held responsible for aiding/abetting murder when some people decide to take matters in their own hand. Giving full name and address to the public is asking for trouble, better would be for the police to keep more of an eye on known sex offenders.

[Japher]

LINK

Megan's Law: Living with knowing

By Michelle Quinn

Mercury News


Jill Simpson wishes she had never typed her San Jose ZIP code into the new online database that gives detailed information about convicted sex offenders in California.

A convicted rapist lives two streets away, and three other sex offenders live in her San Jose neighborhood, one near the preschool to which she had planned to send her daughter.

In response, Simpson, a stay-at-home mother, has rerouted her daily walk with her 2-year-old and plans to carry pepper spray and a portable siren. Her husband wants to set up alarms in the house. And she has talked to some of her Cambrian neighbors about how to protect themselves from the convicted offenders in their midst, conversations she never thought she would have.

``We all felt safe and secure,'' she says.

But her sister, just a few miles away in West San Jose, shrugged off learning that a few sex offenders live nearby.

``I always knew there were sickos out there,'' says Lisa Molson, also an at-home mother of two small children.

These are just two of the reactions people have experienced since the Megan's Law registry went online in California in mid-December.

Since then, the Web site (www.megans law.ca.gov/) has received more than 27 million hits, say state officials. What's harder to know is the effect the information will have and how it might be used. There have been no reports of vigilantism or harassment of registered sex offenders. However, more than 1,000 people have e-mailed the state's attorney general offering updated information about listed sex offenders.

Some have found out that registered sex offenders live in the same neighborhoods they do and are grappling with what the information means and how to respond. For others, the online information has led to renewed discussions with children about safety, including pointing out the homes where offenders live. Others, like Simpson, wonder whether they can ever again feel safe in their neighborhood.

Registration required

Since 1947, sex offenders in California have been required to register yearly at local police departments and every time they move. In 1996, the information was made available to the public with the passage of California's Megan's Law, named after Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old killed in 1994 by a sex offender who had moved into the girl's New Jersey neighborhood.

But some have complained the information has not been easy to access. In most cities, California residents could check the information only by going to their local police stations. (For the past year, San Jose residents have been able to check online to see photos and descriptions, but not exact addresses, of people the police consider high-risk sex offenders.)

In December, California, home to about 100,000 sex offenders, became the 46th state to put many sex offenders' information online. The database includes about 35,000 of the state's most serious sex offenders, including exact addresses, photos and short descriptions of crimes. Crimes might include a sex offense by force or lewd conduct with someone under 14. An additional 30,000 people considered lesser offenders don't have addresses listed, just ZIP codes. Roughly 40,000 minor sex offenders are not listed.

Since the registry has been online, Bob Chewey, a detective with San Jose Police Department's sex registration enforcement team, has fielded calls from concerned residents.

``There's the initial shock that there's an offender in my neighborhood,'' says Chewey. That reaction is sometimes followed by talk of moving or mobilizing neighbors to put up fliers about the sex offender, Chewey says.

The information cannot be used to harass people, Chewey tells callers. And he counsels calm. ``Why are you more afraid than you were yesterday?'' he asks. ``Nothing has changed. Except you have an extra piece of knowledge.''

`It's in our face'

Laura Ahearn, executive director of a group called Parents For Megan's Law, says residents should use the online database to educate themselves about sex offenders and how to protect themselves and their families. But the danger, she says, is that people focus on strangers and forget that most sex crimes against children happen with trusted adults.

``It's not shrouded in secrecy,'' she says. ``It's in our face.''

Upon learning of the sex offenders in her neighborhood, Mallory von Kugelgen of Santa Clara reviewed with her 12-year-old daughter what to do and not do if someone approached her. They talked about the house where the nearest registered sex offender lives.

But von Kugelgen says she doesn't want to instill more fear in her daughter than she has to.

``We've given her the idea that it's a scary world,'' says von Kugelgen. ``I don't want her to be afraid to walk the dog around the park. It's important for her confidence. I want her to feel she can handle things.''

Simpson, whose father is a retired San Jose police officer, says as each day passes, she is becoming used to the fact that a few sex offenders live in her neighborhood.

She doesn't plan to send her daughter to the preschool on the same street as a serial convicted child molester. But she is taking steps to live with the knowledge.

During Christmas weekend she and her father shopped for pepper spray. ``There is no escaping it,' Simpson says her dad tells her.

Pretty much all it does is shatter ppls false sense of security, spreading panic to idiots (of which there are many within this state). It's not like knowing that your neighbor was accussed of date rape 25 years ago by pretentious and absorbed preteen bimbo should effect the way you live or how you treat the PERSON.

I could understand if the person was a sexual preditor, but these people are, probably for the most part, decent people who made a mistake years ago. I don't see why the general public needs to know this information.

On the other hand...

[Whaleboy]

On the other hand...

OMFG he loves paeodos!!!

In an atmosphere of misunderstanding, attrition and witchhunts, such that in the UK, a pediatrician was attacked by a mob who thought her job description meant paedophile, the less chance the public get to assert their idiocy over people who have served their debt to society, the better.

If these people are still a threat, a) why were they released from prison and b) why does the govt leave it to the public to protect themselves?

[GePap]

I oppose the idea of a Megan's Law in the first place- if we believe child molestation is so heinous a crime that a scarlet letter must be drawn on the perpetrators after they have served their prison sentence, then just make the required sentence life in prison.

No half-assed or unfair subsitute.

[Sava]

death penalty for child molestors

yall are a buncha pussbags

[lord of the mark]

The idea behind such laws is that if you are the parent of a young child, you could either avoid living near such a person, or exercise special care if you do. Whether that works or not, or is worth the violation of privacy, or the possible idiocy, I dont know.

It is however naive to think that this is the only instance of ex-cons continuing to be punished after leaving prison. We might as well make it illegal for employers to ask if youve ever been convicted of a crime, something that they do routinely. THAT can make life very rough for ex-cons, and may well contribute to recidivism. More of a problem than Megans law, I think.

[Sava]

lotm

freedom of information

dumbasses who want to make it so you can't find out if a child molestor lives next door

[GePap]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
The idea behind such laws is that if you are the parent of a young child, you could either avoid living near such a person, or exercise special care if you do. Whether that works or not, or is worth the violation of privacy, or the possible idiocy, I dont know.

It is however naive to think that this is the only instance of ex-cons continuing to be punished after leaving prison. We might as well make it illegal for employers to ask if youve ever been convicted of a crime, something that they do routinely. THAT can make life very rough for ex-cons, and may well contribute to recidivism. More of a problem than Megans law, I think.

There is a difference between someone you are petitioning for a job having the right to know some of your past, and random individuals having that information. Obviously society should have programs to reintegrate inmates into society, including job training.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Sava

dumbasses who want to make it so you can't find out if a child molestor lives next door

Big-mouthed wanna be vigilantees

[Imran Siddiqui]

The law is not intended to punish the offender and specifically prohibits using the information to harass or commit any crime against an offender.

Yeah right... I wonder how that is done when the info is spread everywhere.

I agree with GePap. If you think they should do more time then put them in jail longer.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

The law is not intended to punish the offender and specifically prohibits using the information to harass or commit any crime against an offender.

Yeah right... I wonder how that is done when the info is spread everywhere.

I agree with GePap. If you think they should do more time then put them in jail longer.