Legal Research

A valuable tool available to employers is the use of sexual offender databases.  These state sexual registration requirements, popularly know as Megan?s Law, were signed into law in May 1996.  The law had two primary goals.  The first goal was to require each state and the federal government to register sexual offenders.  The second goal provided for community notifications by the local police.

Although a potentially valuable tool, these databases were the subject of a news story in 2003.  The story centered on a survey of the fifty states by a child advocacy group that found literally tens of thousands of offenders who should have been registered but were "lost" in the system.  Either the sexual offenders did not register or the state did not know where the registrants were located.

The group ? Parent?s for Megan?s Law ? contacted all fifty states by telephone.  According to news accounts, the study showed that states, on average, were unable to account for twenty-four percent of the sex offenders who were supposed to be in the databases.  Eighteen states said they were unable to track how many offenders were failing to register, or simply did not know.

A sexual offender database search, both nationwide and using state and local websites, is an extremely valuable tool.  However, employers and volunteer groups need to understand that these databases are not primary tools, but supplemental tools subject to some degree of error and should be utilized with some caution and in conjunction with other safe hiring procedures.

Click Here for a helpful URL with links to state and county sites.

(Copyrighted excerpt from The Safe Hiring Manual by Lester S. Rosen)