Megan’s Law Lists Can Cause More Problems

Re “Sex Offenders to Be Listed on Web Site,” Aug. 15:

The Times reports that Los Angeles and Orange counties’ supervisors voted to create sex offender Web maps and that a law enforcement agency made the Megan’s Law list of sex offenders available to Orange County fairgoers between rides and snow cones. Such responses attempt to address people’s understandable panic after Southern California’s two high-profile child abductions. But suspects in those cases were not on the Megan’s Law list. And, even if the suspect in the Orange County case had been, the abduction occurred miles from his home, so the girl’s neighbors could not have pinpointed him as suspicious.

Local officials should avoid emotional pressures to offer costly, counterproductive solutions. San Diego’s sex offender Web maps, with their sea of colored dots, pointlessly keep the public on edge. A San Diego official was quoted as saying the Web map may be discontinued, citing the “huge” maintenance effort.

Maps and lists terrorize listed individuals. One lawyer gets 40 calls annually from people who committed crimes more than 25 years ago and still get hate mail or who can’t find a job because they’re on a Megan’s Law list. Vigilante actions occur against listed people and their relatives. Since loneliness and anxiety are contributing causes of sex offenses, lists and maps probably have the perverse effect of increasing recidivism. Elected officials should not succumb to pressure to “do something” if that something causes more problems than it solves.

Alex Landon

San Diego