Argumentative Essay On Megan's Law

1151 Words5 Pages
In every neighborhood there are the few suspicious neighbors that no one is really sure if they trust or not. Knowing some of the horrible things that go on in today’s society, people are extremely careful where they allowed their children to go on their own. There is a law that can either help parents relax a little, knowing their children are not being preyed upon in their own front lawn. This law can also inform parents, and any other citizen, of the dangerous people in their neighborhood that they should be aware of. This law is Megan’s Law. In 1995, seven-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and killed in Hamilton, New Jersey, by Jesse K. Timmendequas, her neighbor. This was done by a convicted child molester that lived right across the street from Megan and her family. The reason that the Kanka family had no prior knowledge of the molester’s background or history is because the Police Department was prohibited from disclosing the presence of this child molester. At the time, the law did not allow the release of sex offender information to the public.…show more content…
Kanka states in an interview, “[I]f I had know that the person living across the street was a sex offender, I definitely would not have allowed Megan to be by herself in the front yard, even for a second while I ran inside. Now knowing this, I think I might have even moved, just so I could feel safer in my own home”. On May 8, 1996, President Clinton signed a law, dubbed “Megan’s Law”, in remembrance of Megan Kanka. This law was implemented to allow potential victims to protect themselves and for parents to protect their children. In this law it also states that each state needs to adopt a way to inform people in a community that a sex offender is living among
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