Megan’s Law and Sex Offenders

Recently the school sent home a list of Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders in the school district. They do this annually, it’s not like we had a large increase in the offender population recently or anything.

As a licensed real estate salesperson I am not allowed to tell people where sex offenders live in relation to a house they are interested in purchasing. However I can direct any interested party to several websites that track the movements of these people. The obvious first site is the official Department of Criminal Justice website. From the site:

New York State’s Megan’s Law became effective in 1996, and was expanded in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006 and requires a sex offender convicted for a registerable sex offense to register with the State’s Sex Offender Registry; currently there are over 40 registerable offenses and more than 23,000 registered sex offenders living in New York State.

There are three ways to obtain information about sex offenders in New York State:

1. New York State’s Sex offender Information Line: (800) 262-3257. You will need the name of the offender and one of the following four identifiers: an exact address, a complete date of birth, a driver’s license number or a social security number.
2. The New York State Subdirectory. There, interested individuals can search for level 2 and 3 offenders by name, county or zip code.
3. The local law enforcement agency where the offender currently resides, can, if it chooses, release information on sex offenders residing in the community.

Sex offenders are classified by risk level:

• Level one (low risk);
• Level two (medium risk); and
• Level three (high risk).

Level 1 offenders are required to register for a minimum of twenty years, and level 2 and 3 offenders for life (view details).

Police and law enforcement have access to information on all sex offenders (levels 1, 2 and 3). However, under the law, information on level 1 (low-risk) offenders is not available on the public website. Only level 2 and 3 offenders are listed on the public website.

I found a list of commonly asked questions about Megan’s Law and the movements associated with the protection of children here. This site not only has a lot of links to videos and articles about sex offenses but it also has some food for thought regarding whether the registry has helped control or limit offenses or if it has created a mobmentality. Very interesting and thought provoking. As a mom and a believer in human rights for all humans it really made me think.

Common Sense Advocated by Victim’s Mother

In 1989, 11 year old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped and never seen again. His mother, Patty Wetterlilng, was instrumental in the 1994 passage of the federal Jacob Wetterling Act which required states to establish sex offender registries. She recently said: “The challenge is, you can’t treat all sex offenders the same; they’re not.” The Jacob Wetterling Foundation advises: “Community Notification is not about chasing sex offenders out of our neighborhoods. We all face the challenge of building new communities, which recognize that sex offenders live and work among us. Experts state that sex offenders are less likely to re-offend if they live and work in an environment free of harassment… If we are going to make our communities safer, we need to use this law to our benefit. We need offenders to succeed, because if they don’t, that means there will be another victim.” Read more…

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