James Breig

Community notification laws—which require residents to be notified if a convicted child molester moves into their neighborhood—will not protect children from child molesters, contends James Breig in the following viewpoint. In order to protect children from child molesters, he argues, parents must teach children about the world’s dangers and society must provide treatment for sex offenders. Furthermore, Breig maintains, community notification laws are unconstitutional because they extend a convict’s punishment beyond the court-imposed sentence. Breig is a freelance writer and editor of the Evangelist, a diocesan newspaper of Albany, New York.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What is Megan’s Law, according to the author?
2. For what three reasons is Megan’s Law a bad law, according to the author?
3. In...