What Is Megan’s Law And What Happens When Someone Is Convicted Of A Megan’s Law Offense?
What Actually Is Megan’s Law?
Megan’s law actually came about from a New Jersey case. They use Megan’s law as kind of a trade name all over the place but Megan’s law originally started in the state of New Jersey. It is a sex offender registration and for certain offenses, the person is going to have to register with their local police department and they are going to publish that information so that interested people will know that the person is a sex offender. That is a really bad place to be, having all your neighbors and different lists show you as a sex offender and where you live.
The reason for this is that Megan Kanka was horribly murdered by someone who we would now consider a sex offender. The parents didn’t know that this gentleman was a sex offender and as a result of that, they pushed for a law so that people should have the right to know that there is a sex offender in their neighborhood.
What Does It Mean If Someone Is Convicted Of A Megan’s Law Offense?
If someone is convicted of a Megan’s law offense, they’re on the sex offenders registry essentially for the rest of their life because these are not actors who are acting because they made a mistake or they were financially pressuring to doing something. They have a compulsion and research has shown that someone does not get cured from these offenses and so the courts have determined that people have a right to know if someone with those proclivities is living in close proximity to them so that they can choose where they buy their home and they can choose who they associate with and frankly, some groups can just choose to harass those individuals, even though they are no longer in jail.
What Is The Mental State Of People Who Come To Seek Help In These Situations?
They are distraught most of the time. If they have actually done what is said to be done, they often have terrible feelings about what their compulsions are and dealing with those compulsions through expert testimony is very important to the lawyer and the law office of James Abate does that. These lawyers are in contact with, and often retain psychologists, and many of these psychologists wrote Megan’s law or guidelines.
When the lawyers go to a prosecutor with the report and the evaluation that was performed by the therapist who wrote the guidelines, and if this person is not a danger, then that is very powerful information indeed and that can be the difference between the defendant being on Megan’s law list going to jail or being given an intensive supervisory program and being in treatment rather than in jail.
If you have questions about Megan’s law and sex crimes in New Jersey, call the Law Offices of James A. Abate for a free initial consultation at 908-643-7005 and get the information and legal answers you’re seeking.
Get your questions answered – call me for your free, 20-minute phone consultation: 908-643-7005