Pedophilia

Pedophilia, a term coined in 1896 by Richard Krafft-Ebing, refers to a pubescent individual who is sexually attracted to prepubescent individuals. U.S. concern about child molestation dates back to 1894, when a wave of legislation geared toward increasing the age of sexual consent was enacted. This interest was revitalized in 1932 with the media frenzy surrounding the Charles Lindbergh baby abduction and homicide. The panic led to the first wave of sexual psychopath legislation. In 1938, Illinois enacted the first sexual psychopath law, allowing judges to commit offenders convicted of sex offenses to mental health facilities in lieu of prison. Similar statutes followed elsewhere, but most had fallen out of favor by the late 1970s and early 1980s.

After several years elapsed, child protection issues again gained public attention with the 1987 case of Earl Shriner raping and mutilating a 6-year-old boy, the 1990 disappearance of Jacob Wetterling in Minnesota, the 1993 abduction and murder of Polly Klaas in California, and the sexual molestation and murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey in 1994. Societal responses included the creation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to increase public awareness concerning the safety of children, and passage of the National Child Search Assistance Act of 1990, mandating the immediate reporting of missing children. In addition, sexual psychopath state legislation regained popularity with passage of sexual predator laws and/or civil commitment statutes. Seemingly unaffected by constitutional challenges, the statutes gathered increased popularity and adoption in numerous states and the District of Columbia. Restricted movement of pedophiles through global positioning satellites (GPSs) and pedophile-free zones are even more extensive.

Even more far-reaching is the implementation of Megan's Law statutes. The 1994 Megan Kanka case produced an enormous amount of public outrage, resulting in the enactment, only 2 months later, of a New Jersey state statute commonly known as Megan's Law, that eventually led to federal legislation that included offender registration, community notification, civil commitment, discretionary use of the death penalty, discretionary life imprisonment, the development of a national sexual offender registry, lifetime supervision, DNA testing, fingerprinting, and the right to refuse good time credits. President William Clinton signed this legislation into federal law in 1996, and today all 50 states have some form of Megan's Law.

More recently, crimes perpetrated against Dru Sjodin and Jessica Lunsford by previously convicted sexual offenders resulted in other legislation: the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Database Act (part of the 2006 Adam Walsh Protection and Safety Act) at the national level and the Jessica Lunsford Act in Florida in 2005. “Dru's Law” established a national sex offender database that links state information. The Jessica Lunsford Act mandates minimum 25-year sentences and lifetime electronic monitoring, and other states are considering similar legislation.