The brutal 1994 rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka prompted a public demand for broad based community notification. On May 17, 1996, President Clinton signed Megan's Law. Soon after, Louisiana enacted sexual predator and sex offender registration and notification laws. Megan's Law requires the following two components: 1) sex offender registration, and 2) community notification.
 

The responsibility of keeping track of sex offenders and child predators located in Louisiana is with the Louisiana State Police. If you want to search the registry to see whether any sex offenders or child predators live in your area, you can go to the Louisiana State Police search page and enter your zip code, city, or parish.

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The man who raped and murdered Megan Kanka was known to police officials as a sex predator and had prior convictions. At the time of the murder, he was living across the street from Megan with two other convicted sex offenders. Megan's parents had no idea of the danger until it was too late.

The 1994 Jacob Wetterling Act requires the States to register individuals convicted of sex crimes against children. Sex offender registration laws are necessary because:

	Sex offenders pose a high risk of re-offending after release from custody
	Protecting the public from sex offenders is a primary governmental interest
	The privacy interests of persons convicted of sex offenses are less important than the government’s interest in public safety
	Release of certain information about sex offenders to public agencies and the general public will assist in protecting the public safety

Megan’s Law allows the States to establish criteria for disclosure, but compels them to make private and personal information on registered sex offenders available to the public. Community notification:

	Assists law enforcement in investigations;
	Establishes legal grounds to hold known offenders;
	Deters sex offenders from committing new offenses;
	Offers citizens information they can use to protect children from victimization.

Who must register:

If convicted of a sex offense after July 1, 1997, the statute's effective date, the offender must register with State Police, sheriff's office and police departments. If the offender committed a sex offense on or after June 18, 1992, he or she must register with sheriff's office and police departments. If the offender committed a sex offense prior to June 18, 1992 or if in custody of Department of Public Safety and Corrections on or after June 18, 1992, the offender must register with sheriff's office and police departments. Additional notification requirements apply for offenders with victims under the age of 18.

Information collected:

Name and any aliases used by the offender; Address of offender's place of residence upon release from confinement; Crime for which the offender was convicted which gave rise to the requirement to register and entire criminal history; Date and place of conviction; SSN; Photograph; Fingerprints; Other such information as may be required by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections to carry out the purposes of this law.

The offender must register within 21 days of release from prison or within 10 days of entering Louisiana or changing his or her address. The requirement for registration lasts for 10 years or, in the case of violent predators, the requirement is lifetime. As of July of 2002, there were 2,808 registered offenders.

Comment from reader:

     I certainly understand the importance of sex offender registry but it seems that there is a lot of overkill here. Yes register, but the Puritan style publicity is ridiculous and counterproductive to the rehabilitation process. A person is expected to get out of jail and shell out over $400 to pay for the registry process with no job in 21 days or risk being in violation of probation and being sent back to jail. Also notification of the neighbors is certainly going to cause an "offender" to receive some sort of bodily harm. Notifying the landlord will result in evictions without due process. How would a probationer cope with this and effectively re-assimilate into society? We are setting this person up to fail.
And let's not forget the family of the sex offender. The offender may have to live with his family who may be evicted from their home. What about the families rights? to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This law will certainly interfere with that.
     Also we have to consider as a society that it is far, far too easy for ANYONE to Falsely Accuse any other person of these heinous acts. It happens all the time in divorce courts where one parent wants custody and child support so bad that they lies about the other parent in order to get their way in court and even resort to persuading the children to lie. And that leads to another issue: that children do indeed lie and lie well.
     Also consider the prevalent theory that if the children admit to being molested it's the truth. If the children in turn recant they only do so to get their loved one out of jail out of guilt or their in "denial" which is a pseudo psychological term for someone denying something happened, which is something people do daily except molested children. If they deny being molested then it's more proof of the alleged molestation: an interpretation from the pseudo psychologists.
     I am very well read about this subject and have personal experience in this area. While divorcing my ex-wife, she accused me of both physical and sexual abuse for which I was never convicted because I kept my ducks in one row. Today the child I was supposed to have molested has openly stated that I did nothing to him and he was severely beaten by his mother. In the last year and a half my mentally retarded brother in law was accused of 2 counts of aggravated incest. Our two nephews made statements to police that put him in jail for 19 months. The children recanted their statements and were met with open hostility by the police and their parents were threatened with removal of the children permanently if they came to my brother in law's defense ever again. That brother in law is the brother of the alleged victims mother. This has caused a tremendous breakdown in my wife's family.
     Sadly on advice of his lawyer my mentally retarded brother in law who also has seizures, emphysema, and mitral valve prolapse pled guilty so he could get out of jail before the medical staff killed him through their medical neglect and deliberate indifference. He lives with my wife and I who were willing to keep him for the rest of our lives and I informed the landlord 2 days after my brother in law came to live with us and we are being EVICTED. I am a disabled Navy veteran and a police veteran. My wife is a degreed registered Nurse. I am also degreed. We both have backgrounds in psych and were the best and only choice for my brother in law to live with. We were willing to take him for his protection and to insure that charges like this never arose again and are being punished for it. That's justice for ya!

Enter only one or you will receive an error message. The listing includes photographs of the offenders together with current address and physical information. The last time we checked, Orleans Parish alone had 748 registered sex offenders.

Here's an example from the State Police files:

Megan's Law Nationwide and The Apple of My Eye

Ms. Ahearn donates all book proceeds to Parents For Megan's Law, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of childhood sexual abuse.