Megan Nicole Kanka

Megan Nicole Kanka was a seven year old girl from New Jersey who had her life taken by Jesse Timmendequas in July of 1994. Timmendequas was a repeat violent sex offender who lived with other known sex offenders across the street from the Kanka residence. The parents of Megan; Richard and Maureen were not aware that the house across the street was the home of known violent sex offenders. This horrific story would later become a benchmark on one of the countries best sex offender notification laws.

Many laws regarding sex offender notification began at the state level and throughout communities to notify neighbors when an offender was living in their area. Washington was one of the first states to adopt a full state law notifying communities of nearby sex offenders and called it the “Washington State Community Protection Act of 1990.” Megan’s Law was brought to the federal level in 1994 and is known officially as the, “Sexual Offender Act of 1994.”

In 1996 Bill Clinton signed Megan’s Law which asks states to make private or personal information about sex offenders open to the public. Different states have different requirements for sex offenders. Approximately 15 states have put their databases on-line and made it searchable for the public by name or zip code. The website shows detailed information about the person, from known offenses to known identification marks and possibly a picture of the individual. Some states require the offenders to notify schools and neighbors in the surrounding area that they are moving into their neighborhood and some states have even required them to place signs in their windows notifying the neighbors of their status.

California Megan’s Law

Megan’s Law was passed by California legislatures on August 24, 2004 and signed by the governor on September 24, 2004. The website in California gives you information on more than 63,000 individuals who are required to register. Home address’s are available on more than 33,500, more than 30,500 are available by zip code and 22,000 others are not included but known by local authorities.

California Megan's Law Website;

http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/


Other Useful Websites;

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?id=1083&action=tdihArticleCategory


http://scsotf.com/Megan%27s%20Law.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan's_Law