tion was focused on the issue recently in New Jersey where a convicted pedophile named Jesse Timmendequas sexually assaulted and killed a 7-year-old girl named Megan Kanka, a neighbor. The authorities had not told the community that Timmendequas and two other convicted child abusers had moved into a home across the street from Megan's house. The result in New Jersey was the passage of what is known as "Megan's Law," which requires that the community be notified when a sex offender is released into the area (Popkin and Simons 64).
This sort of response has been extended to other violent felons as well, with more and more communities fighting the placement of parolees in their area and seeking laws involving everything from notification to the right to refuse entry to a released offender to enhanced incarceration beyond the original sentence. Local groups across the country are trying to block former convicts from settling in their communities and are pressing their state assemblies for tougher detention la
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