No Child Left Behind: The Adam Walsh Act and Pennsylvania Juvenile Sex Offenders

At a White House ceremony on July 27, 2006, President Bush signed into law the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. At the ceremony, the President hailed the Walsh Act as being comprehensive and an important part of the “solemn responsibility” of lawmakers to protect children. Indeed, the Walsh Act is the latest in a series of federal legislation, dating back to the 1980s, which aims to protect the public, and children in particular, from becoming victims of sexual crimes. The public’s fear of the rapist and the child molester led to a great increase in the criminal penalties for sexual crimes throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the imposition of federal laws focusing on these crimes. And at a time when television shows such as “To Catch a Predator” receive millions of viewers, it is clear that the nation’s fear of those who would commit sexual crimes against children, and the desire that they be brought to justice, remains at a fever pitch. By passing the Walsh Act, Congress and the President responded to a national outcry that children were not safe from sex offenders.