NCJ Number
178647
Journal
Criminal Justice Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: Fall 1996 Pages: 3-6,8-10,63
Date Published
1996
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article examines legal challenges to sex offender registration and notification laws.
Abstract
Sex offender notification brands sex offenders by publicly exposing their presence and their past. Registration and notification laws are intended to deter recidivism, enhance police effectiveness in preventing or solving sex offenses and promote community awareness and self-protection. But critics have questioned the overall social utility of such laws and claim the need to examine them both as a matter of legislative policy and of constitutional principle. The article discusses the statutory framework of sex offender registration laws; policy concerns under Megan’s Law and the cost to enforce it; courts upholding such laws; and Megan’s Law with regard to ex post facto, double jeopardy, privacy, due process and equal protection issues. Even if Megan’s Law can be refined, through legislative amendment and judicial interpretation, to meet due process, double jeopardy and privacy objections, no amount of fine-tuning may overcome the ex post facto dilemma.