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Megan’s Law results elusive

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By Tatiana Zarnowski, Sentinel Reporter, March 12, 2007

Last updated: Monday, March 12, 2007 11:29 AM EDT

Sex offenders’ faces are plastered on TV screens and newspaper pages when they’re charged, prosecuted and sentenced.

Their unwavering expressions of innocence or tearful apologies are broadcast.

Mention their names — or their crimes — in public and people shake their heads in disgust. Some protective people suggest “permanent” solutions — the death penalty for all sexually violent predators, for example.

Megan’s Law:

Fast facts
  • Megan’s Law tracks convicted sex offenders to protect the public, especially children. It also provides for neighbor notification when a sexually violent predator moves into the area.
  • State police keep the registry up to date. Changes are posted within two days of being received. Photographs are updated yearly.
  • Passed by Congress in 1996, the law is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered by a twice-convicted pedophile who lived next door to her.
By the numbers

Pennsylvania has 8,739 registered sex offenders and 158 sexually violent predators. Less than 2 percent are female.

There are 205 sexual offenders living in Cumberland County and nine sexually violent predators. Dozens of those people are incarcerated at Camp Hill Prison after being declared sex offenders for a previous offense.

Since 2000, the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board has assessed 5,539 sexual offenders to determine for the courts whether they are sexually violent predators — 67 of those were in Cumberland County and 33 in Perry County.

Of the 29,000 former state prison inmates on parole, between 1,700 and 1,750 are registered sex offenders.

Web resources

Use these Internet sites to find sex offenders living in your area.

  • www.familywatchdog.us
    Enter your address and see a map that shows where sex offenders live, work or attend school in your area. Click on each icon to see the offender’s photo, name, address and convictions. Also sign up to be notified when a registered sex offender moves into your area.
  • www.pameganslaw.state.pa.us
    View the state police Megan’s Law database of sex offenders and sexually violent predators. Search by county, city or name.
  • www.sexcriminals.com/regs/1044.html
    Get information on Pennsylvania’s registry.
  • www.nsopr.gov
    Access the National Sex Offender Public Registry by clicking on one or more states and searching by name.
  • www.meganslaw.state.pa.us/soab
    Check out the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board Web site for stats on sexual abuse and other information.

After their prison terms, offenders return to quiet neighborhoods where the likes of them aren’t welcome — often with good reason, says Diane Moyer, legal director for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.

“I think with a certain class of offenders, we have to know that there is no cure. I don’t honestly believe with truly deviant sex offenders that there’s this ‘aha moment’ when they say, ‘What I’ve done is wrong.’”

And yet these offenders often manipulate those around them and come off looking like the nicest guys on the block, Moyer says. “They kind of groom the community, as well as their victims, to say, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe he did that.’”

Megan’s Law: How the process works

  • Someone is convicted of one or more of the 18 crimes that trigger Megan’s Law — including rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, luring a child into a vehicle, kidnapping or indecent assault, for example.
  • The state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board conducts an assessment of the person before sentencing to determine whether the person is a sexually violent predator, meaning he has a “mental abnormality or personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sexually violent offenses” — basically, sex offenses or other crimes against children.
  • If the board finds that the person is a predator, a hearing before a judge usually takes place, and the judge listens to testimony about the convict’s sexual deviancy and likelihood to reoffend from both the state board and any experts the defense may hire.
  • The judge makes a final decision on whether the offender is a sexually violent predator likely to reoffend, weighing the person’s history based on 15 criteria, including the number of victims, the nature of sexual contact, the victim’s age and mental capacity, the perpetrator’s past criminal record, mental illness and behavioral characteristics.
  • “It’s a professional clinical diagnosis,” says Lauren Taylor, executive director of the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board. “It’s not a maybe or a guess.”
  • The person is sentenced, usually to prison.
  • All state prison inmates, including sexual offenders, get a four- to eight-week assessment that determines their mental health and treatment needs, among other things. The inmate isn’t required to undergo counseling, but if the resulting plan recommends it and the inmate doesn’t comply, he won’t be paroled after his minimum sentence, says a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.
  • The sex offender is paroled, and the state parole board usually recommends an evaluation, which often will lead to treatment during the supervised parole period. Upon returning to the community, the person also must register his address with state police, who notify neighbors if he is a sexually violent predator. His photo, name, home and work address and convictions appear on the state police Megan’s Law Web site and other online databases.
  • He must register for 10 years if convicted of kidnapping a minor, misdemeanor indecent assault, incest with a victim 12-18 years old, promoting prostitution of a minor, obscene performances with a minor, sexual abuse of children, unlawful contact with a minor or sexual exploitation of children.
  • Being convicted of two or more of the above crimes or being labeled a sexually violent predator triggers a lifetime registration, as well as the following offenses: rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault or incest with someone under 12 years old.
  • A parole officer assigned to the offender — often someone who specializes in supervising sex offenders — keeps track of whether he attends treatment and meets other requirements. The state Board of Probation and Parole tries to keep those agents’ caseloads to less than the 75:1 ratio that is typical for other parolees.
  • Eventually, the offender satisfies his parole and is no longer under supervision. He must continue to register for the remainder of the 10 years or for the rest of his life.

So when offenders return from jail, people sometimes harass them, leaving nasty messages in their mailboxes, slashing their tires or egging their houses, says Cpl. Steve Vesnaver, section supervisor for the state police Megan’s Law Section.

But that “vigilantee-ism” can end up harming the community as well, Moyer says.

“When we adopt ordinances that prohibit offenders from moving here and living there, do we then drive offenders out to rural areas where there’s not (adequate) law enforcement?” he asks.

In other words, they have to live somewhere. So what’s the solution?

The best model, Moyer says, is one in which offenders register with police, get regular psychological treatment and neighbors know who they are.

Group treatment is the most successful, because offenders hold each other accountable.

Some “treatment providers ... do not understand the mind of the sex offender and will use traditional therapy,” she says. But people with deviant thoughts require special treatment.

Megan’s Law requires sexually violent predators to get counseling once a month for the remainder of their lives. Sex offenders who aren’t designated predators nearly always undergo treatment as part of parole or probation requirements, but after that, treatment is voluntary, says Lauren Taylor, executive director of the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

So the online sex offender database includes “a number of people ... that are not supervised,” Taylor says.

Treatment for sex offenders on parole or probation is individual, says Nathan Bortner, spokesman for the state Probation and Parole Board.

“We don’t have an across-the-board policy for every offender,” he says. Parolees pay for their own treatment or evaluation.

Improved tracking

Organizations like Family Watchdog help keep people informed. The Web site meshes the state police database with a map program so users can enter an address and see exactly how many offenders live nearby and what their crimes were. It also presents sex crime statistics.

And police work to make sure sex offenders are registered, keeping in touch with other states to let them know when an offender moves there.

“If one of our sex offenders stops in to report that he is moving out of Pennsylvania, we send that state a notice,” Vesnaver says.

But what about the offenders who move without telling police?

Tips from the public help, he says. And the law about registration has tightened to protect people more.

New legislation passed late last year gives offenders who fail to register with police a mandatory minimum two-year jail sentence, Vesnaver says. Sexually violent predators must register with police four times a year, while sex offenders have to check in once a year.

Where sex offenders once had 10 days to register, they now have 48 hours under the new legislation, he says.

The online state police Megan’s Law database now can include the addresses for sex offenders in addition to those for sexually violent predators, although offenders’ employment information still includes only the city, not the street address.

In May, police will begin posting sex offenders’ vehicle information on the Web site and will include whether the victim was a minor.