Megan’s law in Brazil: a critical analysis of the privacy of those convicted of sexual crimes

Abstract

The present work intends to analyze the implementation of the sex offenders registry in the United States of America, and how this action has been spread in others countries, including Brazil, also verifying the effectiveness of these laws in preventing sexual violence. In the first chapter, the article makes the historical rescue of the Megan case, studying the American and Brazilian legislation. Then, discusses the right to be forgotten about sex crimes, and how sex offenders lifetime records have the potential to violate the lifelong sentences prohibition and the right to privacy. In the third chapter, it talks about the media influence on public repercussion sexual crimes, and how the victims end up being re-victimized in these cases. In continuation, the analyzes the cycle of abuse, performing criminal profiling of those involved in sexual offenses. Finally, it investigates the effectiveness obtained by Megan's Law in the United States, and how Brazilian initiatives have their constitutionality questionable. In methodological aspects, the research, anchored in a historical, comparative and monographic procedure, has the general objective of reviewing the literature and technical productions, being based on the qualitative mapping of the researched material, in an inductive approach in the study of the cases brought, and the hypothetical deductive in the study of legislation.