Essay Sample on Laws Requiring Sex Offenders to Register

Introduction

The Sex Offender Registration Act also referred to as SORA has become part of a comprehensive law in the federal states that require the state to undertake and maintain a system for monitoring closely and tracking the convicted sex offenders and those who commit other felonies. This commences when such individual is released into the community. The act quantifies it a criminal offense for such an individual to fail to register with the state's authorities or to fail to update his or her registration within a period of specified time limit as required by the law.

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The law applies in almost fifty states including the districts of Colombia as well as in the Native American tribes including the US territories within the Pacific regions. The departments of justice that monitor every jurisdiction's compliance with the SORA requirements and dictates are regularly reporting on the continuity of the law and its implementation and among the states. The SORA law was passed in 2006 by the Congress under Title I of the Adam Walsh child safety and protection act (Newman, 2010). The law was passed 25 years after the atrocious murder of Adam Walsh who got abducted a shopping mall in Florida. The six-year-old boy was later found dead even though no one was found culpable for the killing but it was believed that a serial killer who died while in prison in 1996 was the likely killer.

The stemming of the law was as a result of repeated criminal acts by twice offenders. The culmination of the law was after the kidnapping of Megan Kanka. The seven-year-old girl was kidnapped in New Jersey raped and murdered by an individual who had been previously convicted of a sexual offense. These laws require a convicted sex offender and other certain acts of felonies that are released from prisons to undertake registration with their local authorities for close monitoring. It has been argued that this will act as a deterrent measure that such crime crimes may not be repeated by the once offenders (Newman, 2010). A far-reaching consequence to these offenders is the fact that their photos and names are posted even on the internet. This was according to the Supreme Court ruling despite many justices that were rejected in several attempts by the sex offender to prove that they were no longer dangerous to the community.

As much as the American people champion from the Megan law, there is a section that provides a counter-argument to it. These have the view that the people who have served the imprisonment term entirely are still subject to stigma and often they would go underground to avoid the watchful eyes of police and parole officers (Hanser, 2012). The offenders already acquitted of the charges typically will gain support in the communities where have supported putting the residents in such environments at risk. Additionally, those who are labeled sex offenders suffer a great deal in various places. They lose jobs; some are evicted while others are threatened with death not to mention harassment they receive. Scores have had their properties destroyed while others are beaten (Newman, 2010). Under such harsh treatment copping becomes stressful and almost impossible, thus if there are no reliable support systems to help such people, they are doomed to fail. Practically, when nothing works for this offends-home, job, and family - they are likely to give up and end up reoffending.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the law itself is discriminative since it rarely forgives the offenders. For instance, Frank Lindsey now aged 62 is one of the more than 105,000 people whose names are listed as sex offenders in California. His name and a photograph and home address are publicly appearing online in the offender registry because of a crime he committed when he was 27 years old. Despite advocating for restorative justice and encouraging offenders to amend their actions, he concludes that it seems he cannot be forgiven by the state.

References

Newman, G. R. (2010). Crime and punishment around the world for sex offenders . Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.

Hanser, R. D. (2012). Introduction to corrections after committing acts of felony. London: SAGE.