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November 21, 2000 Iowa
sex offender registry Jessica
Tarbox DES MOINES, Iowa — In 1989, an 11-year-old boy named Jacob Wetterling was abducted off the street in his hometown of St. Joseph, Minn. He has never been found. The only lead, which was a vague and ultimately dead-end lead, pointed toward a known sex offender. In 1994, a 7-year-old girl named Megan Kanka was enticed to enter a man's home to play with his new puppy. He sexually molested and murdered her. The list of sexual and violent crimes against children, and others, goes on and on, but these two children stand out as the namesakes for the first national recording system for sex offenders. In an attempt to provide greater public safety and perhaps prevent offenders from committing similar crimes, Congress passed legislation in 1994 requiring all individuals convicted of a sexual criminal offense to register their personal information in the state. The legislation was called the Jacob Wetterling Act. Two years later, Congress amended the Jacob Wetterling Act to include a requirement for states to provide pertinent information to the public concerning sex offenders in various communities. The amendment was called Megan's Law. "The whole registry came about to track sex offenders so law enforcement would have an additional tool," said Larry Mullen, special agent in charge of the Iowa Sex Offender Registry. Megan's Law, he said, allowed law enforcement to share this information with the public. "It was designed for people who are hiring someone to work in a nursing home or daycare, or to coach Little League. If they have a name plus any other identifier, they can find out whether or not someone is a registered sex offender." The Jacob Wetterling Act states that anyone convicted after July 1, 1995 of a criminal offense against a minor, sexual exploitation, or a sexually violent crime must register personal information with the state. If a person has been convicted only once, the registration holds for a minimum of 10 years. At a second or subsequent conviction, the sex offender must register for life. In most sex offender cases, Mullen said, they are crimes committed against minors by adults: 87 percent of the victims are 17 and under and 90 percent of the offenders are over 18. "More often that not, their victims are children," Mullen said. "Who we're trying to protect here is the children, which is why it's so important." On the rare occasion that a minor commits an offense, the offender is treated as an adult in court. A juvenile court judge, however, has the power to waive the registry law for a convicted individual under age 17. In the case of an adult, Mullen said, the judge does not have that power. The information available to the public varies by the severity of the offense. If an offender is low-risk, the only public-accessible registered information is the offender's name, address and physical description. If an offender is moderate or high risk, a risk assessment is included, listing what the individual was convicted of, the location of the offense, and the age and gender of the victim. "Originally we did not release victim information, but we've restricted it to categories so people would know what type of person this offender would target," Mullen said. "But we caution people that some of these guys would offend against anyone." The public continuously requests more information about the offenders in Iowa neighborhoods, Mullen said, and some would like to have the entire list of offenders available either in printed version or on the Internet. But there is a certain amount of concern about the rights of the offender as the Iowa Sex Offender Registry notifies the public of his whereabouts and convictions, Mullen said. "We have
to notify them in advance so they have an opportunity to state their objections,"
Mullen said. "One of the best things we've got going for us is the Web site," Mullen said. "Since March, we've had 78,581 hits, and compared to the number of people who actually walked into a sheriff's office, that's pretty good. In five years, a little over 19,000 people requested information from a sheriff's office." The Sex Offender Registry also conducts public notifications, handing out information to local daycare centers and schools, but Mullen said that the registry only puts out information to the media on these people "on the assessment that someone is at risk to re-offend." Iowa communities can decide to post sex offender information once it has been made public. Local notification as determined by a community can range anywhere from simply having the information in a file to playing commercials on local television to taping up posters in convenience stores. Through the information provided by the Sex Offender Registry, communities can take an active part in informing themselves and protecting their children from the fates of Jacob Wetterling and Megan Kanka and from the "at risk" segment of the 3,791 registered sex offenders in Iowa. |