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Megan’s Law: Evaluations of Sexual Offender Registries

University of California-Los Angeles

This article presents a literature review of the empirical evaluations of sex offender registration and community notification policy, commonly known as Megan’s Law. A background of the social problem that stimulated the policy formation of Megan’s Law is provided. Literature searches presented 12 empirical evaluations on different aspects of Megan’s Law. These evaluations focused on stakeholder, client-centered, goal-oriented, and process evaluations. Many sex offenders found some value to Megan’s Law in both deterring future abuse and when DNA collection was used in reducing false accusations. Implementation of this policy varied both within states and between states. Community members generally support the policy’s concept. Goal-oriented evaluations are not supportive of the policy’s effectiveness. Suggestions for future evaluative research on this policy are given.

Key Words: sex offender registries • Megan’s Law • policy evaluation

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, 123-140 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0887403404265630


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