Megan's Law

[April]

Andrea sent me an interesting topic I though I should post on here for us to discuss and get some ideas on!

Andrea's Comment:

Why aren't cruise ship companies using that Megan's Law idea to try and screen sex predators who purchase tickets to come on board and prey on other passengers? Does anyone keep stats on how many of these cruise ship attacks are done by convicted sex offenders???

To my knowledge, NO, stats are not collected (at least they are not publicly distributed) on how many of the sexual assualts and rapes on cruise ships are by convicted sex offenders.

Most of the cruise ship rapes are by crewmembers, most of which are from other countries. Some are by other passengers and many times the date rape drug or similar substances are used.

For those that do not know, I have posted a summary of what Andrea is talking about - Megan's Law - below:

A new California law, Assembly Bill 488 (Nicole Parra), sponsored by the Attorney General now provides the public with Internet access to detailed information on registered sex offenders.

This expanded access allows the public for the first time to use their personal computers to view information on sex offenders required to register with local law enforcement under California's Megan's Law. Previously, the information was available only by personally visiting police stations and sheriff offices or by calling a 900 toll-number. The new law was given final passage by the Legislature on August 24, 2004 and signed by the Governor on September 24, 2004.

For more than 50 years, California has required sex offenders to register with their local law enforcement agencies. However, information on the whereabouts of these sex offenders was not available to the public until the implementation of the Child Molester Identification Line in July 1995. The information available was further expanded by California's Megan's Law in 1996 (Chapter 908, Stats. of 1996).

California's Megan's Law provides the public with certain information on the whereabouts of sex offenders so that members of our local communities may protect themselves and their children. Megan's Law is named after seven-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a known child molester who had moved across the street from the family without their knowledge. In the wake of the tragedy, the Kankas sought to have local communities warned about sex offenders in the area. All states now have a form of Megan's Law.

The law is not intended to punish the offender and specifically prohibits using the information to harass or commit any crime against an offender.

Andrea's question raises an interesting way for the cruise lines to screen their passengers for sexual predators. It is worth looking into what the cruise lines do along these lines. If anyone out there has info. on this please share it with us!

- Jamie