Megan's Law No Deterrent To Sex Offenders

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A study examining sex offenses in the state where Megan's Law was created says it hasn't deterred repeat offenses.

The report released Thursday finds that registering sex offenders in New Jersey does make it easier to find offenders once they are accused of a sex crime.

However, by comparing arrest rates before and after the sex offender registration law was passed, the study found no significant difference between statistics before and after Megan's Law was passed.

The study also compared sex offenders rates with violent crimes and drug offense rates in comparable time periods, and did not find any discrepency with sex offense rates post-Megan's law.

"Because sex offense rates began to decline well before the passage of Megan's Law, the legislation itself cannot be the cause of the drop in general," said the report, "Megan's Law: Assessing the Practical and Monetary Efficacy," prepared for the Department of Corrections' Research and Evaluation Unit. "It may, in fact, be the case that continuing reductions in sex offending in New Jersey, as well as across the nation, are a reflection of greater societal changes."

According to the authors, measures of recidivism rates, community tenure (the amount of time before a re-arrest), and harm reduction (decreased sexual offending), revealed no significant differences between cohorts.

"Despite wide community support for these laws, there is little evidence to date, including this study, to support a claim that Megan's Law is effective in reducing either new first-time sex offenses or sexual re-offenses," the report states.

The report also said that, because it saw no discernible difference made by implementing Megan's Law, the cost of administrating the law (approximately $3.9 million in 2007) should be reexamined.

(CBS)

Left: Recidivism Before And After Megan's Law; Re-Arrests For Sex Offense, N.J., By Year.

"Given the lack of demonstrated effect of Megan's Law, the researchers are hard-pressed to determine that the escalating costs are justifiable," they wrote.

New Jersey was among the first states to enact laws requiring community notification and sex offender registration.

The laws are named for Megan Kanka. She was 7 years old when a twice-convicted sex offender who lived near her home raped and killed her in 1994.

The report was conducted by the state Department of Corrections with help from Rutgers University. It was funded by the National Institute of Justice.


Trends In Sex Offenses

The study covered trends in sex offenses over a twenty-one year period before and after Megan's law was enacted; recidivism of 550 sexual offenders released during the years 1990 to 2000; and the costs attributed to implementing and administering Megan's Law.

The report's writers collected rates for sexually based offenses, non-sexually based offenses, and drug offenses for the years 1985 through 2005 from Uniform Crime Report data, in order to construct a comparative trend analysis. ("Offenses" referred to the number of reported arrests.)

The authors noted that while crime rates across the U.S. have been dropping, fluctuations in arrests for sex, drug and violent crimes can be affected by such factors as funding of police, the proliferation of certain drugs, or changes in law enforcement policies, and not just the incidence of offenses.

Among the report's findings:

New Jersey, as a whole, experienced a consistent downward trend of sexual offense rates, with a significant change in the trend in 1994 (the year Megan's Law was passed), although the report's writers point to variations in county reporting data which could skew the numbers.

Some N.J. counties, which showed a decline in sex offense rates after Megan's Law was passed, showed a large rebound, followed shortly after by a continued decline. The authors suggest the spike in offenses reflects increased surveillance and arrests, rather than increased offending.

In the sample of released offenders, there is a consistent downward trend in re-arrests, reconvictions and re-incarcerations over time. However, re-arrests for non-sexual violent crimes (with no corresponding registration program for ex-convicts) also declined steadily over the same period.

The men incarcerated for a sex crime were more likely to have been arrested previously for non-sex crimes than sex crimes (65% had a previous arrest for a non-sex crime). Only 27 percent had been previously arrested for a violent crime. On average, offenders were 24.8 years old at the time of their first arrest for a sex crime. Only 6 percent had been arrested as a juvenile for a sex crime.

Eighty percent of offenders were serving time for child molestation (21% incest vs. 59% non-incest). Cases of rape and general exhibitionism accounted for 20% and 0.4% of cases, respectively.

Most offenders had an established prior relationship with their victims; in only 16% of cases was the perpetrator a stranger. Nearly half (48%) of perpetrators were family members, with the remaining crimes committed by acquaintances (34%) or the victims' partners (2%).

Megan's Law has no effect in reducing the number of victims involved in sexual offenses or in the type of offense.

Sixty-two percent of offenders denied committing certain aspects of the crime, or denied the sexual offense entirely.

Sentences received prior to Megan's Law were nearly twice as long as those received after Megan's Law was passed, but time served was approximately the same; in addition, significantly fewer sexual offenders have been paroled after the implementation of Megan's Law than before (largely due to changes in sentencing).


The sample of the 550 released offenders revealed some interesting data as well:

Most offenders were raised in either a traditional two-parent home (66%) or in a mother-only headed household (23%),

The majority of offenders (61%) did not report any history of child abuse. However, 26% reported having experienced sexual abuse as a child.

Only 23% of offenders reported some type of past mental health problem, including problems diagnosed in childhood (e.g., emotionally disturbed, developmental disorder) and depression. Thirty-five percent reported receiving mental health treatment in the past.

A sizeable proportion of offenders had a drug or alcohol abuse history, with 45% reporting a prior drug abuse problem and 47% reporting a prior alcohol abuse problem.


For more info:

N.J. Department of Corrections, Research and Evaluation Unit

CBSNews.com producer David Morgan contributed to this article.

[norisk88]

Everyone sure seems like they know ALOT about how a *** offender's mind works.
How I have no idea.
15 yrs ago I was at a party where there was alot of drinking and dancing with people of varying ages (not a very wise decision I ofcourse know now), but me and a girl who happened to be under aged wound up spending the night together. Dumb a** mistake because I'm now paying for it with the rest of my life, when I never even THOUGHT of doing anything like that before or after. Do I agree that heinous criminal *** offenders be punished severely? YES! Do I think EVERYONE should be labeled, stigmatized and punished for the rest of their lives under one blanket law making guys like myself (and women too), who are at NO risk of reoffending blacklisted? Absolutely not.
Hey. I'm all for punishment. But people do make mistakes (watch Maury), and not all convicted offenders are perverted sex addicts who pray on children.
Cause I DEFINITELY don't.

[60129]

A few comments about sex offences.
1. Feminists started the sex offender hysteria under the slogan "Take power from men in any way possible".
2. It is estimated that 40% of sex offences are committed by women, but they are rarely prosecuted.
3. The sex crimes task force in police departments is typically 100% female. Males are used for arrests.
4. DA's usually have control of the media on this matter because of their public relations branch that promotes the worst cases. This places fear in the public minds and makes for good politics in elections and increased budgets. Think of this. Would DA's push sex crimes if there was no money in it? Drug offenders had become passe' so sex offenders saved the day for law enforcement.
5. The US has 25% of the world's population of prisoners. It is one of our largest industries and supports prison guards, cops and DA's (lawyers) not to mention the cottage industries that depend on a large prison population.
6. A just Justice system has been compromised by prosecutors who MUST get a conviction in any means possible - lying, coersion, breaking the law, etc - because the conviction rate is typically 95% and if a DA looses a case they are finished career wise.
This is just a few facts that are not conveyed to general public by law enforcement because it would not be good for "business".

[luke_4u]

Some of those that make these radical statements, like cut their balz off, or shoot them in the head, are themselves sickos. If you really want to see legal offenders receive this kind of punishment, move overseas to one of those radical Muslim countries. They do it all the time there, and it stops nothing. Yes, it of course stops that one individual from reoffending, but locking them away in prison, does the same thing. What if it was a close loved one of yours, a family member or very close friend ? Think it couldn't happen ? Think again ! Would you still make these radical ignorant statements ? I doubt it, so don't do it now. Most of these offenders have serious mental problems, to be sure. But does that give us Carte Blanche to walk up and shoot them in the head, or cut their nutz off, as some of you say ? Let's see what happens if your dad, or your brother happens to screw up, then we'll see what kind of treatment you want "them" to receive. Better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you are ignorant, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Think about what you are saying, before you open your mouth and ramble on without one single thought, as to how disgusting you sound. We have a legal system in this country, and no it's not perfect as nothing is, but it's there so let it work.

[usanative1]

FACT: Anywhere you are standing at any given time in a populated area with in the lower United States 4out 10 people in a two hundred feet radius are felons.This dampens and raises my brow on some thier *** offenders stats of previous arrests.The law makers throw the word felon around as much as possible.Every time I hear this it reminds of when the DOD changed terminology from locate and kill the enemy to clean and sweep operations.

[evian_ycnan]

"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."

[taxed01]

We are not going to stop *** offenders until we start cutting their nuts off. We are to politically correct to do that so we will continue to sacrifice children. What a wonderful society. The liberals call it "civilized".

[sam4cee]

people need to read exactly what this article says. most of these offenders are in your families. its crazy to pay this huge sum in taxes for the police to monitor what families themselves need to do for themselves.to those who have weird uncle al or cousin tom who has a million pics of children on there computer. or brother phil who spends most of his time watching children in the park and has none of his own.you have that not in my family opinion but they have to be in someones family. why should the state pay for someone to monitor whats going on in your own homes? yeah yeah you want to kill these offenders but do you take exception to your own families? people need to take responsibilty for there own children, watch them, be there for them. get those wierd uncle als the help they need before they hurt a child. this i had no idea he seemed like such a nice guy is balony. open you eyes and save some money.

[jackp32]

That liberal weenie Governor of NJ had the death penalty revoked. Among those whose sentence was commuted from death to life was the habitual child molester who brutally murdered Megan. Corzine was so proud of himself for being the one who accomplished the abolition of the death sentence in NJ. I do hope the voters of NJ reward Corzine with a lifetime appointment as Gov. of your state.

[crzmeat1]

I''m sick and tired of this , let''s roll up the shirtsleeves kill anyone that molest children on the town square for all to see and harass their families for not raising them right and this problem will go away there is no other solution, legislators passing laws will not work ask any pot smoker...

[Slrman-21001573651763300012869]

One thing not mentioned is that the recidivism rate for *** offenders is about 16% (FBI records). That is far less than for burglary, robbery, and most other crimes.

Another thing most of these ill-informed reactionary poster don''t know is that many *** "crimes" are the result of the "victims" lying about their age, and law enforcement entrapment.

*** offenders are now in the same place as blacks used to be; someone that you can feel self-righteous about feeling superior to, no matter how bad you are otherwise.