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Prior to the vicious sexual assault and murder of young Megan Kanka, citizens were unable to search for convicted sex offenders who lived in or nearby their neighborhoods. While sex offenders were mandated to register with their local law enforcement agency, it was not until the year after Megan Kanka's murder that information through the sex offender registration became accessible to the public. Megan's Law, an act named after the young girl to honor her memory, was established in 1995 and required that all sex offender registration information be available to individuals across the United States. The purpose of Megan's Law is to ensure the safety of both children and adults and notify the public about the location of convicted sex offenders.

After a series of stalking‐related murders that included the killing of actress Rebecca Schaeffer in the late 1980s, California was the first state to establish an antistalking law. It took only a few years after the passage of the first legislation for all 50 states and the District of Columbia to introduce similar stalking laws. The National Institute of Justice was called on by Congress to study the ongoing issue of stalking and develop an act that would prevent stalking crimes in the United States. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was created to overcome several challenges that the criminal justice system encountered when civil protection orders, or restraining orders, were the only resource available to stalking victims.