The Impact of Media on Knowledge and Perceptions of Megan’s Law

Abstract

Using survey data, this research examines the role of media exposure and attention to media on people's knowledge and perception of a specific criminal justice policy: Megan's Law. Overall, the results revealed that general knowledge of Megan's Law is low. Media exposure and attention increased the level of specific knowledge of Massachusetts community notification law but did not have an effect on knowledge of Megan's Law in general. Attention to crime in the newspaper was related to both support for Megan's Law and belief in its effectiveness. The low level of variability in support, however, suggests that community notification is an across-the-board popular policy, even among people with minimal media exposure and who pay little attention to crime in the news.In 1994, a young New Jersey resident, 7-year-old Megan Kanka, was abducted and murdered by a repeat sex offender. Soon after this incident, New Jersey adopted what would become known as Megan's Law. This law requires the police to publicly inform citizens when high-risk sex offenders 356 AUTHORS' NOTE: We would like to acknowledge the support of our students enrolled in the 1999 fall semester research methods courses in criminal justice and communication studies at Westfield State College. These students worked diligently at collecting the data for this project. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Megan's law and its impact on community re‐entry for sex offenders

“…Most citizens are familiar with Megan's Law and support the policy as an important public safety measure (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007;Proctor, Badzinski, & Johnson, 2002). The majority of 193 individuals surveyed in Florida indicated that they believe that most sex offenders will reoffend and therefore community residents should be told about all sex offenders living amongst them .…”

Sex Offender Community Notification and Community Stratification

“…Although community notification laws appear to have broad public support (see Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007;Phillips, 1998;Proctor, Badzinski, & Johnson, 2002), they have not been without detractors. Early opposition centered on the emotional origins of the law, the practical difficulties of implementation, the lack of empirical support, and constitutional issues, particularly the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment (see Avrahamian, 1998;Bell, 1996;Bolding, 1997;Freeman-Longo, 1996;Hughes, 2002).…”

Psychological mechanisms underlying support for juvenile sex offender registry laws: prototypes, moral outrage, and perceived threat

“…Other research has also shown high public support for adult registry and community notification laws (Caputo & Brodsky, 2004;Proctor, Badzinski, & Johnson, 2002;Redlich, 2001). It is important, however, to test politicians' and policy-makers' assumption that such support extends to juvenile sex offenders.…”