The Constitutionality of Kansas Laws Targeting Sex Offenders

Abstract

Kansas, like many States, has enacted various laws in the past several years responding to concerns about sex offenders and public safety. Most prominent are state laws that substantially increase the criminal punishment for sex offenses, the so-called “Megan’s Laws” that provide for sex offender registration and some form of community notification or access to offender information, and perhaps most dramatically the sexual “predator” statutes that provide for the civil commitment of certain sex offenders upon their release from prison. This article discusses the constitutionality of these measures, all of which Kansas has enacted in some form.