Sex Offender Registry, Essay Example

Sex offender registry, though officially introduced by the Jacob Wetterling Act in 1994, and further amended into Megan’s law in 1995, is a much older policy in the USA. As Welchans (2005) noted, there have been laws governing the registry of sex offenders in many states as early as in the first half of the 20^th century. The compilation of laws obliging states to create and regularly update the registries of sex offenders, commonly known as Megan’s laws, are mostly perceived positively among the community because they provide the general public with detailed information regarding the presence of sex offenders in the neighborhood. Moreover, some sex offenders also found Megan’s laws to have a positive effect on their lives because they effectively deter them from recidivism, and the mandatory DNA sample taking ensures the avoidance of a false conviction.

From the research data of Welchans (2009) and CSOM (2008), one can see that Megan’s laws undoubtedly work. Nevertheless, they have also been found to produce a range of undesirable consequences such as the unwillingness of people to live next to sex offenders, the unnecessary stigma in the neighborhood community, the worsening of employment and educational opportunities, etc., which cripples the ability of a sex offender to rehabilitate and reintegrate into the society. Moreover, it is essential to note that Megan’s laws, though effectively addressing the already registered sex offenders, fail to meet the need to detect the unregistered offenders who commit new crimes and live undetected for years. As soon as a sex crime is committed in the neighborhood, the first registry to consult is the one of sex offenders. Hence, people who have rehabilitated and are trying to live a normal life after a prison sentence or a term in a mental institution are constantly tortured by unreasonable suspicion, while the undetected offenders may continue committing crimes. Moreover, as Williams (2009) admitted, Megan’s laws do not meet the need to punish the users of commercial sex services from prostituted children and teens who are also victims of sex abuse, and not offenders, as they are commonly seen by the US law.

References

CSOM (2009). Legislative Trends in Sex Offender Management. Center for Sex Offender Management, pp. 1-20.

Reading, R. (2009). Promotion of children’s rights and prevention of child maltreatment. Lancet, 373, pp. 332-343.

Welchans, S. (2005). Megan’s law: Evaluations of Sexual Offender Registries. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 16(2), pp. 123-140.

Williams, L. M. (2009). Provide Justice for Prostituted Teens: Stop Arresting and Prosecuting Girls. In Frost, N. A., Freilich, J. D., & Clear, T. R. (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Criminal Justice Policy: Policy Proposals from the American Society of Criminology Conference (pp. 227-306). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.