Registered Sex Offender
According to Megan’s Law and The Jacob Wetterling Act, all 50 states are required to register sex offenders and perform community notification via a registered sex offender registry. However, each state differs in terms of how it administers its community notification process, its registered sex offender registry, what offenders are required to register, the duration of registration, what information is registered, how the information is shared, whether the public has access to the sex offender registry, and who is granted access to the sex offender registry.
Megan’s Law is named after Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed at age seven by a known registered sex offender who had moved across the street from the Kanka family without their knowledge. In the wake of the tragedy, the Kankas sought to have local communities warned about sex offenders in the area and on May 17, 1996, President Clinton signed Megan’s Law. Now there is a national sex offender registry.
