Megan's Law

The federal Megan's Law was passed in May 1996, in response to the 1994 rape and murder of Megan Kanka of New Jersey.  The focus of this law was to encourage states to implement programs that would make information on sex offenders available to residents.  In September 1996, California's Megan's Law was signed into law and took effect immediately.  This law was implemented to allow potential victims to protect themselves and allow parents to protect their children.  The purpose of this legislation is to provide sex offender information to law enforcement, parents and children, as well as community organizations where children are supervised or women are cared for.  It is hoped that armed with the knowledge of, description, and whereabouts of sex offenders, community members will be in the possible position to protect their children and themselves.

New Megan’s Law Internet Site Fact Sheet

Assembly Bill 488, signed by the Governor in September 2004, now requires that specific information about persons required to register as sex offenders be posted on the Attorney General’s Internet web site on or before July 1, 2005. We are pleased to announce that the information in now available online, at:

http://MegansLaw.ca.gov or http://ag.ca.gov/meganslaw

History of Megan’s Law

Information on the whereabouts of registered sex offenders was NOT available to the public until the implementation of the Child Molester Identification Line in July 1995. A year later, in 1996, California’s Megan’s Law further expanded the information available to the public; however, access to the information could only be through a sheriff’s office or a participating police department.

Information now available on the new Internet site

The new California Megan’s Law Internet site provides the public with detailed information on more than 63,000 registered sex offenders, including those currently incarcerated. The information includes:

• Names

• Aliases (nicknames)

• Age

• Gender

• Race

• Physical description (including scars, marks and tattoos)

• Photograph

• Description of the conviction(s)

• County and Zip Code where the offender last registered

The Internet site provides home addresses for about 33,500 of the state’s most serious sex offenders.  There are approximately 100,000 registered sex offenders in California.  There are approximately 300 sex offenders from Santa Cruz County available for viewing.  Additionally, viewers can see if an individual is in violation of their registration requirement and the date they fell out of compliance.  Sex offenders who have been convicted of certain crimes such as misdemeanors, may not be available to the public for viewing. 

You can search the web site by city, county or Zip Code; or by park, school or individual name.

California’s Megan’s Law provides the public with certain information on the whereabouts of sex offenders so that members of our local communities can protect themselves and their children. The law is not intended to punish the offender and specifically prohibits using the information to harass or commit any crime against the offender.

To obtain more information about Megan's Law, visit the California Attorney General's Web site at: http://caag.state.ca.us/megan, or call the California Sex Offender Information Hotline at 1-900-448-3000.  There is a fee to use the 900 number.