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Simple English definitions for legal terms
community-notification law
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A quick definition of community-notification law:
Community-Notification Law: A law that requires sex offenders who are released from prison to register with a local board and provides a way to share information about them with the community they live in. This law is also known as Megan's Law, named after a seven-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived near her house. All states have this law, but only some require community notification, such as publishing offenders' pictures in local newspapers. In other states, people must call a state hotline or submit names of persons they suspect. The federal version of Megan's law can be found at 42 USCA § 14071.
A more thorough explanation:
A community-notification law, also known as Megan's Law, is a statute that requires sex offenders who are released from prison to register with a local board. This law also provides a way to share information about the registered sex offenders with the community where they live.
For example, if a sex offender is released from prison and moves into a neighborhood, the community-notification law requires that the neighbors be informed of the offender's presence. This can be done by publishing the offender's picture in local newspapers or by calling a state hotline.
The law was named after Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old girl from New Jersey who was raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived across the street from her house. Megan's Law was enacted in many states in the late 1980s, and now all states have some form of this law.