Will Jessica's Law Keep Your Children Safe from Sexual Predators?

By Jim Evans

The facts are mind-boggling and downright scary. California has the largest number of registered sex offenders in the U.S. - almost 20 percent of the more than 500,000 registered sex offenders in the entire country - and recently received an "F-grade" on a national report card from Parents for Megan's Law, the national state-to-state legislation requiring states to enforce minimum registration laws for sex offenders and provide some kind of public notification concerning registered sex offenders. (source: Southern Californians for Jessica's Law, www.jessicaslaw.com)

Moreover, according to the California Office of the Attorney General, there are two registered sex offenders currently living in Julian, three in Santa Ysabel, three in Warner Springs, 19 in Ramona and 2,778 living in San Diego County (www.meganslaw.ca.gov/ Megan's Law - Information on Registered Sex Offenders). They could be among your friends, neighbors, or even among your own relatives. The good thing is that these offenders are known and registered with the authorities. The bad thing is that there may be others who are not known and are not registered or, worse, there are known offenders who have eluded authorities or who have registered but have vanished since registration (more than 33,000 in California in 2002).

The Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act of 2006: Jessica's Law began circulation in petition form on Oct. 13, 2005. The campaign had until the end of February 2006 to collect the 373,816 valid signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the November 2006 statewide ballot, and supporters were confident that they would have more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballet. Jessica's Law is named in memory of 9 year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was taken from her home in Homosassa, FL, on Feb. 23, 2005, and found brutally murdered three weeks later. A registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history and outstanding warrants for probation violations confessed to abducting, raping and burying Jessica alive just 150 yards from the home where she had lived with her father and grandparents.

The initiative proposes some 18 different provisions including requiring registered sex offenders released on parole to wear a Global Positioning System tracking device; prohibiting registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any school or park; and generally increasing sentences and fines for sexual assault across the board. Because of civil liberty concerns, Jessica's Law was killed in the California State Assembly forcing it to go before the voters to become a law if the initiative obtained enough signatures to make the ballot.

However, if the proposed initiative does, in fact, make the ballot and eventually becomes law, its restriction of civil liberties for sexual offenders has a potentially adverse impact on the civil liberties of all citizens in California. (A discussion of that impact will be discussed in a continuation of this story in next month's Journal.)

Meanwhile what can parents do to protect their children against sexual predators? The California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, features an extensive list of recommendations for parents to protect their children on its Website, www.meganslaw.ca.gov/. Perhaps the single most important thing on the list for parents to remember is that 90 percent of sexual molestation cases involve relatives or friends with almost half being family members. Therefore, parents should be cautioned not to focus too much on the danger that strangers might represent because, while the stereotypical "dirty old man" in a trench coat might seem like the greatest threat, the real danger is usually much closer to home.