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Term Paper on
Sex Offenders Treatment
In 1994, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl
named Megan Kanka was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a previously
convicted sex-offender that lived in her neighborhood. In the
ensuing weeks an uproar arose, and legislation was hastily crafted
that would require all sex offenders to register their current
address with the local authorities. On top of this, police would
notify the immediate community of the offender’s presence in order
to alert them to the possibility of future repeats transgressions.
Critics argued that the bill would undermine the rights of criminals
already punished for their crimes. Proponents toed a very
utilitarian line, holding the wide benefits of increased public
awareness of local danger to be greater than the damage to the
rights of the offender. The law, which came to pass and is referred
to as Megan's Law has subsequently been emulated in dozens of states
around the country, and has come under severe attack. These attacks
do not focus primarily on whether or not Megan's Law is effective
legislation, but instead on its implications on civil liberty.
Megan's Law, though arguably useful in helping to decrease the rate
of repeat offenses, is unsupportable because it discriminates
against sex offenders, impinging upon their rights as American
citizens. (Megan's Law)
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Megan's laws have been advocated as dictatorial schemes to warn
communities of the presence of individuals involved in committing
serious sexual offenses. Courts have ruled that an individual should
be allowed to explain that he or she does not present a long-term
danger to the social order. Laws that did not offer persons a chance
to challenge the condition to register or the level of public
notification have been struck down as illegal of the constitutional
requirement for due process. Our alteration would correct this
deficiency in the present bill by permitting persons to appeal the
Superior Court to rule that, because they are not ongoing dangers to
society, (1) they are not required to register under the act or (2)
the Metropolitan Police Department's determination as to the level
of community notification is not appropriate.
It is noteworthy to be very clear about the eagerness for our
donation. Provoked by the federal Wetter ling Act enforced a few
years back; each state has approved its own report of what is
commonly recognized as "Megan's Law." The fundamental thought is to
warn the society to the being there of precarious and criminal sex
wrongdoer and pedophiles in their center. Even though the federal
strategy unambiguously state that the state Megan's Laws does not
necessitate the registration and public announcement of each one
found guilty of evil doings with a sexual ingredient, a number
states have gone far ahead of these sensible guiding principle.
Particularly, a number of states have misused Megan's Law by
sardonically aiming at gay men who pretense totally no hazard to
public safety.
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GLAA's major intention in allowing for Bill 13-350 is
straightforward: to make sure that no one wronged by uncontrolled
officially-approved homophobia here or anywhere else will be
additionally ill-treated by being forced to unnecessary registration
processed and subjected to public declaration measures that should
be restricted to grave sexual offenders and pedophiles.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals suspended Connecticut's online
postings until the state rates individual parolees by the severity
of their crimes, ranging from public exposure to rape and murder.
Lower courts said the Constitution's due process guarantee requires
that, once someone serves his sentence, he deserves the same
treatment as any citizen. Some 30 states have online registries, and
23, plus the District of Columbia, make no determination about the
danger a person poses before individual information is posted. (Mary
Deibel, 2002)
Some state description of Megan's Law have recognized board of
experts to assess sexual offenders to resolve the extent of danger
(if any) they portray to the public and therefore how they should be
registered and to what extent the public notification is in order.
The first story endorsed by the Council and signed by Marion Barry
in 1996 recognized a similar system. But no board of professionals
was ever chosen even though the courts attempted to make conclusion
about levels of announcement for some criminal lawbreaker anyway. It
seems that, the District's senior officials were leave to another
time the budgetary costs of fully put into practice the system set
up by the 1996 law.
It is worth noting in this situation that the Massachusetts account
of Megan's Law has been hit not once but twice by its state courts
on the basis that there was no prerequisite for estimating the risk
to the public presented by individual sexual offenders. Bill 13-350
may be defenseless to judicial defeat on similar grounds. The
reality that a since departed Judiciary Committee staffers, who
aided to guided the emergency and conditional bills passed in July,
was strongly engaged with drafting the discredited Massachusetts
Megan's Law should give pause to every Council member.
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