Comments on: Megan’s law may not have had much of an impact http://apublicdefender.com/2007/05/06/megans-law-may-not-have-had-much-of-an-impact/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:10:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Capital Defense Weekly http://apublicdefender.com/2007/05/06/megans-law-may-not-have-had-much-of-an-impact/comment-page-1/#comment-966 Capital Defense Weekly Sun, 06 May 2007 20:56:38 +0000 http://apublicdefender.com/2007/05/06/megans-law-may-not-have-had-much-of-an-impact/#comment-966 [...] at A Public Defender is looking at one of the key issues impacting trial courts these days, the effectiveness of [...] [...] at A Public Defender is looking at one of the key issues impacting trial courts these days, the effectiveness of [...]

]]> By: Ilah http://apublicdefender.com/2007/05/06/megans-law-may-not-have-had-much-of-an-impact/comment-page-1/#comment-962 Ilah Sun, 06 May 2007 18:20:45 +0000 http://apublicdefender.com/2007/05/06/megans-law-may-not-have-had-much-of-an-impact/#comment-962 Some organizations (Stop It Now! and the IA Co. Prosecutors Association, for example) suggest the increasingly punitive laws deter VICTIMS from reporting abuse at the hands of someone they know, which would result in a lower number of known crimes. And since we all know the overwhelming majority of these crimes take place within the victim's circle of association... In order to discover if the laws "worked," one would have to look at an extremely narrow set of criteria: Crimes committed outside the victim's circle of association, by a previously convicted offender (because those are the only crimes Megan's Law takes aim at) who was released into the community after a comparable sentence--and who did not receive any more or less treatment or supervision--than those released prior to the law's enactment. Some organizations (Stop It Now! and the IA Co. Prosecutors Association, for example) suggest the increasingly punitive laws deter VICTIMS from reporting abuse at the hands of someone they know, which would result in a lower number of known crimes. And since we all know the overwhelming majority of these crimes take place within the victim’s circle of association…

In order to discover if the laws “worked,” one would have to look at an extremely narrow set of criteria: Crimes committed outside the victim’s circle of association, by a previously convicted offender (because those are the only crimes Megan’s Law takes aim at) who was released into the community after a comparable sentence–and who did not receive any more or less treatment or supervision–than those released prior to the law’s enactment.

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