In the early nineties, most American suburban households would have never thought twice about letting their kids play nearby outside or in the front yard of their homes. Before the nineties, citizens never new if there was a sexual predator living near by their homes or withinin their communities. On July 29, 1994, a family and a community was shattered when 7 year old Megan Nicole Kanka was brutally raped and murdered less than thirty yards away from the doorstep that she was playing on. She was lured into a neighbor's house who had invited her inside to come and play with his new puppy. No one in the community knew that he was a convicted sex offender, who had attempted sexual assault on other children. Would you want to be informed if a sex offender moved in next door to your home? Should citizens have the right to be informed of the sex offenders that our living inside their communities? After a tragic story like Megan Kanka, the emotions from within naturally scream out yes. The solution to this problem is not as easy as the emotions within make it first appear.
             When Megan Kanka was brutally sodomized and raped, the aftermath was something like a tidal wave of immediate response. The family and community had no idea of their new neighbor's recent convictions. Many within the surrounding communities pledged their support by signing petitions saying that citizens have, "The right to know" when a sex offender moves into the area. With the help of four hundred thousand signatures collected, the slogan, "The right to know!" became a law in New Jersey in a record 89 days after Megan's murder (Tom Hughes 136). Today, there are laws in all fifty states that require some form of public notification when a sex offender moves into a new area.
             Child molestation cases and pedophilia have always been serious issues that stir up some of the strongest emotions from deep within. The emotio...