Megan's Law: What it is and who Megan's Law Offenders are.
Megan's Law, the federal version, was enacted on May 17th, 1996. Megan's Law mandates that every state develop a procedure for notifying residents of sex offenders residing there. Each state differs on how they report the information, but the National Alert Registry has combined all of the state's information in to one easy-to-use database.
One of the important aspects of Megan's Law, is the requirement of convicted sex offenders to notify authorities of their current address. Every time a convicted sex offender moves they are required to notify the local police of their new address. This allows the public to know where the sex offenders live at all times. However, this requirement is not always permanent and many convicted sex offenders are only required to report updates of their address for ten years.
Background of Megan's Law
On Friday July 29, 1994, 7-year old Megan Nicole Kanka disappeared. With the promise of a puppy, her neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas, lured her into his home where he raped, strangled and suffocated her. Her body was stuffed into a plastic toy chest and dumped in a nearby park. Megan had been killed by a two-time registered sex offender who lived across the street from the Kanka home and was sharing his house with two other convicted sex offenders, he met in prison.
This brutal attack is what prompted the first local state legislation and what is attributed for the federal involvement in creating the law now referred to as Megan's Law. This legislation was a landmark event and was a great move toward securing the protection of our children.