Megan's Law

Mandated Reporting on and by Sexual Offenders

Megan's Law within federal statutes is called the Sexual Offender Act of 1994 (also known as the Jacob Wetterling Act), which mandates that any individual found guilty of perpetrating a sex crime against a child must inform the local police regarding any address change or change in job after being discharged from detention (either from the penitentiary or psychiatric hospital).

These requirements vary from state to state; that is, the individual might have to notify the authorities for 10 years, or possibly until death. Every state has the right to command that each individual involved in a sex crime must register, regardless of whether or not one of the victims was a minor. If an individual convicted of a sex crime does not update his/her data, he/she has committed a felony and can be sent back to jail. Megan's Law supplies the public with two primary data benefits: (1) any individual convicted of a sex crime must register; and (2) one's community will know whether a citizen is a sexual perpetrator. Each state handles this differently, and the rules and regulations regarding an individual's registration and/or how the community is alerted changes periodically. A supplement to Megan's Law concerning the registration of criminals is the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, a measure that categorizes sex offenders regarding their potential danger to local neighborhoods.

On July 29, 1994, Jesse Timmendequas kidnapped, brutally raped, and murdered Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old girl who lived across the street from his [Page 921]residence in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. The 33-year-old Timmendequas had a long history of committing heinous sexual crimes and thus upon conviction of this latest criminal act was sentenced to death. However, while he was on Death Row in December 2007, he received a sentence of life without parole due to the New Jersey Legislature abolishing the death penalty.

Megan's Law is called the Sexual Offender Act of 1994, which mandates that any individual found guilty of perpetrating a sex crime against a child must inform the local police regarding any address change or change in job after being discharged from detention.

Timmendequas had lived, with two other sexual offenders, in a house opposite the Kankas. Megan's parents, Richard and Maureen Kanka, later stated that if they had known this, they would have made their daughter promise to stay away from all three.

Before Megan's Law, community groups would often handout flyers telling neighbors about sex offenders who lived within their neighborhood. The Kankas, after the vicious murder of their daughter, circulated a petition insisting that the New Jersey legislature devise a law making sure that there would be no repeat of Megan's murder. More than 400,000 citizens signed their names and consequently, Megan's Law became statutory less than three months after the child's death.

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