ABSTRACT
There are many approaches to preventing child sexual abuse.One is to require convicted adult sex offenders to register with the police, often publicly on the Internet. The first federal registration law was the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (42 U.S.C. § 14071), which required all 50 United States to force sex offenders to register with local law enforcement agencies after serving their time in the prison system to ensure that their whereabouts were known. This legislation was intended to facilitate the prompt apprehension of repeat sexual offenders. In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (42 U.S.C. § 13701), commonly known as Megan’s Law, added the requirement that states have community notification procedures in place to inform neighbors when sex offenders move into their community. The purpose of community notification is to enable community members to “take common sense measures for the protection of themselves and their families” (42 U.S.C. § 16911, p. 4).
