Megan’s Law, a statute designed to raise public awareness of local registered sex offenders, has recently fallen under scrutiny. Throughout the country, many states are re-examining their version of the law to determine its overall effectiveness.

Within the boundary lines of Rockbridge County reside 25 registered sex offenders. Lexington and Buena Vista add another fifteen.  Megan’s Law in the state of Virginia requires local law enforcers to place on public record the name, photograph, address and other information of registered sex offenders.

Lexington police officer Leonard Stuart said that in the recent past there have been a number of sexual assault crimes within Lexington.  According to Stuart, in the last three years, there have been three reports of rape, three reports of sodomy and six reports of forcible fondling.

Stuart also said that although there is some difficulty in finding and registering sex offenders, the solution starts with victims garnering the courage to come forward and report these crimes.

Stuart says that the Lexington police work in numerous ways to aid the victim, such as being involved with local abuse outreach program, Project Horizon. He also reassures the community that the police will do whatever they can to find justice in sexual abuse cases.

“We as a police department will certainly be vigilant and actively investigate all reported cases of sexual assault,” Stuart said.
 

Find out if there is a registered sex offender on your block

Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.

Lead supervisor:      Prof. Claudette Artwick

Reporting supervisor: Prof. Doug Cumming

Editing supervisor:  Prof. Pamela Luecke

Technical supervisor:  Michael Todd