Legal Definitions - community-notification law

A community-notification law, also known as Megan's Law, is a statute that requires sex offenders who are released from prison to register with a local board. This law also provides a way to share information about the registered sex offenders with the community where they live.

For example, if a sex offender is released from prison and moves into a neighborhood, the community-notification law requires that the neighbors be informed of the offender's presence. This can be done by publishing the offender's picture in local newspapers or by calling a state hotline.

The law was named after Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old girl from New Jersey who was raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived across the street from her house. Megan's Law was enacted in many states in the late 1980s, and now all states have some form of this law.