The Patriot Act & Megans Law - Research Paper Example

The Patriot Act & Megan’s law The Patriot Act The Patriot Act was signed into law by President George Bush on the 26th October 2001.The act is an Act of congress whose title is a ten letter acronym which stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” (USA PATRIOT Act 2001). The Act was enacted 45 days following the September 11 attacks. The September 11 attacks on the world trade center in New York catalyzed the enactment of a legislation that would provide law enforcement with greater powers to investigate and prevent terrorist activities. The spirit of the act is founded on the notion of providing all that is required by law enforcement, within the limits of the constitution, to effectively combat the war on terror (Doyle, 2002). The main purpose of the Patriot Act is to punish and prevent terrorist acts within the United States and in the world. The Act also enhances the investigatory powers of law enforcement and accomplishes other purposes which include strengthening of the country’s measures in the detection, prevention and prosecution of international money laundering and financial terrorism schemes. The act gives law enforcement power to scrutinize foreign institutions, jurisdictions and classes of transactions or accounts that are vulnerable to abuse. It also strengthens measures aimed at preventing the use of the country’s financial systems for personal gain through corruption by foreign officials as well as facilitating the repatriation of stolen assets to the owners of such assets. Additionally, the act requires all financial service providers to report all elements of probable money laundering activities (Jaeger, Bertot, & McClure, 2003). The Patriot Act made several changes to the laws that existed prior to its enactment. Some of the legislations that were affected by the Patriot Act include the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, the Money Laundering Control Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Bank secrecy Act. The changes introduced to allow investigators to make use of already existing tools to investigate drug trafficking and organized crime, especially through the use of surveillance and conducting investigations without alerting terrorists (Doyle, 2002). The act facilitates the sharing of information and increase cooperation between government agencies in order to operate effectively in solving cases. The act also updated the existing laws to reflect new threats and technologies as well as increasing the penalties for individuals engaging in terrorist activities (Podesta 2002). There were concerns that the act would trample the civil liberties of individuals in achieving its objectives. These concerns have resulted in the amendment of the act several times to address these concerns. The patriot act also included some sunset provisions, which meant the sections affected by the provision would cease to be enforceable on 31st December 2005. However, reauthorization has extended the applicability of most of these sections. The act has been reauthorized by several bills which include a bill passed in 2005 another in 2006 and another in 2010. The reauthorizations temporarily extended the provisions that were meant to expire (Podesta 2002). The act has also raised controversy; especially in regard to the manner it was enacted. Opponents of the act argue that the act was enacted opportunistically following the September 11 attacks and this did not allow enough debate as the act was passed hurriedly with little changes to its draft (Abdolian & Takooshian, 2003). Megans Law Megan’s law is a title for laws in the United States that require law enforcement authorities to avail to the public information regarding registered sex offenders. The Megan’s law was formulated in response to the rape and murder of Megan Kanka. The 7 year old Megan disappeared on 29th July 1994 after her neighbor lured her into his house with the promise of a puppy. While in the house the neighbor raped, strangulated and suffocated the little girl and thereafter stuffed her body into a plastic toy chest and dumbed her remains in a nearby park. The perpetrator was a registered two time sex offender who shared his house with two other sex offenders he met while in prison. The parents of the murdered girl believed they would not have let their daughter travel freely in the neighborhood had they known of the presence of convicted sexual offenders (Corrigan, 2006). One of the main purposes of the Megan’s law is to require sexual offenders to inform authorities of their present addresses. The law requires that every time a registered sex offender moves or changes addresses they are required to inform the local police of these changes. This requirement allows the public to know of the whereabouts of sex offenders at all times (Matson & Lieb, 1997). In essence, the law requires states to create registration programs to assist local law enforcement to keep track of sexual offenders released into their jurisdiction and maintain the program so that the public have information of sex offenders in their communities. The Megan’s law data is currently available to the public through a simple zip code query which helps in identifying the number of registered sex offenders in the community (Welchans, 2005). Prior to the enactment of the Megan’s act there was no obligation for law enforcement to make public the records of sexual offenders. Although registration standards for sexual offenders were set by other laws, Megan’s law was instrumental in making this information available to the public. Megan’s law considerably aided the downward trend of sexual offenses with significant changes after its enactment. As a result of the act all states currently maintain a searchable database of registered sexual offenders and the department of justice links all these databases in a single searchable site that is available to the general public (Matson & Lieb, 1997). There have been some concerns about the registration and notification laws on sex offenders. Some of the concerns raised in respect to Megan’s law are the prospects of vigilantism when members of the community learn about the presence of a sex offender and decide to drive the sex offender out of the community or cause physical harm to the individual. There are also concerns that the availability of information has affected the reintegration of sex offenders into the community because such information affects their employability status (Levenson & Cotter, 2005). Additionally, the costs used in maintaining the information required by Megan’s laws have increased exponentially and such costs may not be practical. Reference list Abdolian, L. F., & Takooshian, H. (2003). The USA Patriot Act: Civil liberties, the media, and public opinion. Corrigan, R. (2006). Making meaning of Megans Law. Law & Social Inquiry, 31 (2), 267-312. Doyle, C. (2002). The USA PATRIOT Act: A Legal Analysis. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON, DC CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE. Jaeger, P. T., Bertot, J. C., & McClure, C. R. (2003). The impact of the USA Patriot Act on collection and analysis of personal information under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Government information quarterly, 20 (3), 295-314. Levenson, J. S., & Cotter, L. P. (2005). The effect of Megan’s Law on sex offender reintegration. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 21 (1), 49-66. Matson, S., & Lieb, R. (1997). Megans law: A review of state and federal legislation. Olympia: Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Podesta, J. (2002). USA Patriot Act-The Good, the Bad, and the Sunset. Hum. Rts., 29, 3. Welchans, S. (2005). Megan’s Law: Evaluations of sexual offender registries. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 16 (2), 123-140. Read More