Running head: WHO'S PROTECTING MEGAN? 1DEPARTMENT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE 2WHO'S PROTECTING MEGAN? 2Who is Protecting Megan?Leandro PerezRasmussen CollegeAuthor NoteThis paper is being submitted October 12, 2014, for Diana Cintron, J355/MMC3209 Section 01 Realities of Crime and JusticeIn 1994, seven year old Megan Kanka, was lured into a neighbor's home to play with his puppy. She was never seen alive again because she was raped and strangled by this neighbor, a convicted sex offender. National outcry at this American tragedy resulted in the Megan's Law Amendment to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act. This Federal Act mandates that states maintain a registration system for sex offenders that allow citizens to discover sex offenders in their neighborhoods (Corrigan, R. 2006).Megan's Law is an effective way to help protect our children, and this law and others likes it need to be used throughout the country to get the full benefit. The offender Jesse had been convicted of two other sex offenses toward a child, once in 1979, and again in 1981, both times for assaulting a female child less than seven years of age. After his second conviction, he was sentenced to six years in the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Anvel, New Jersey. After he was released, he and to other convicted pedophiles moved into a house across the street from the Kankas in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. Megan Kanka was seven years old when the sex offender and his two roommates moved in across the street. Her family had no knowledge of their new neighbors past sexual convictions, at least not until it was too late. Megan saw the offender Jesse outside playing with his new puppy one day not too long after Jesse and his roommates had moved in. The offender used his puppy to lure Megan into his home where he then started to molest her. Megan started to scream and tried to fight back, but it was too late he wrapped a belt around her neck and strangled her to death.The media coverage was very important, for this case because they needed to point out the facts of what had happened, so that new policies get put into place, so no more incidents like this ever happens again. Sex offenders needs to be in just one area away from kids. The law was implemented so that another incident like this doesn't happen again, and yes a national outcry helped put this law into place with the help of the media and how much coverage it received.ReferencesCorrigan, R. (2006). Making Meaning of Megan's Law. Law & Social Inquiry, 31(2), 267-312. doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.2006.00012.x