Online Display of Registered Sex Offenders Is Not Uniform

Disclosure of their whereabouts before the authorities has been made obligatory by the state of New Jersey for the past ten years. At present there are officially almost 11,000 offenders moving in this state, out of which nearly 2,000 are incarcerated. Many of the rest of 8,803 are not regarded as possible repeat offenders and hence less than 25 per cent of these have their names, photos, and addresses put up for public attention on the Web site of State Police (i.e. www.njsp.org).

A yearly report on the Law of Megan put together by the State Administrative Office of the Courts says that among the 21 counties the proportion of sex wrongdoers whose names are posted online differs considerably. The North Jersey counties display significantly less offenders than some other counties. In Atlantic County, 43 per cent of all sex offenders are to be seen on the website while in Cape May County it is just 42 per cent.

This is due to decisions taken at the individual level in each district attorney's office. Judge, Lawrence M. Lawson, who supervises Megan's Law judges in all New Jersey counties, says that each office is responsible for determining whether a wrongdoer can be revealed online. When confronted with the data most county authorities showed puzzlement. Judge Lawson says that the report, brought out in November 2006, raises queries on the application of the law and more information would be sought.

No single agency is entrusted with seeing the application of Megan's Law within the state. Brian Lynch, who is an assistant-prosecutor in charge of Megan's Law proceedings in Bergen County, says that all depends on the manner in which prosecutors read the law and how judges read it.

Megan's Law came into being following the rape and murder of seven-year old Megan Kanka in 1994 by one of the sex offenders who dwelled in her locality in Hamilton Township. The law makes it mandatory for convicted sex criminals to reveal their location to authorities in order that the local population might be aware of the presence of the sex offender. This law (registration law) has been promulgated at the national level and in other states.

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» SPAMfighter News - 1/3/2007