Megan’s Law is a federal law that allows the public to have access to the whereabouts of registered sex offenders. However, since 2012 in Pennsylvania, that hasn’t applied to juvenile offenders.
Several state lawmakers from Westmoreland County gathered Thursday to express their desire to change that.
“We are just getting the word out to let people know that there are gaps,” said Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Hempfield Township. “The key that we’re identifying here is that there’s a gap in Megan’s Law and communities are not being notified.”
Under Pennsylvania’s current version of Megan’s Law, if a sex offender convicted as a juvenile before 2012 is excused by a judge after a year of a clean record, they can live unsupervised and not show up on the list.
“They could walk into a church, a daycare, a senior home, and these parameters of protection, an employer even doing due diligence will not know,” Nelson said. “Picture a young mom with two kids who’s trying to get to Dollar General. The nice man next door says, ‘I’ll watch the kids, go pick up that milk.'”
As juvenile offenders age out of the judicial system, they’re sent to …
Funny how most legislators think children below whatever the age of majority is are just too damn stupid to make their own sexual choices unless convicted for a sex crime. Then they’re sexual scourges for the rest of their lives.
Also funny how this guy says “employers will never know” if an applicant was convicted of a sex crime as a minor. From that, I can only assume his purpose is to ensure those convicted of sex crime as minors never have a job. Someone ought to ask him how the state will support such individuals financially for the entirety of their lives. The likely answer would be the state
prison“treatment facility” after which he ought to be asked how much that would cost every year.