Advocating for Other Children
Mark was devastated by his daughter’s death. But he was also angry—angry at a system that had allowed Couey to slip through the cracks.
In 1991, Couey had been convicted of exposing and fondling himself in front of a 5-year-old girl, telling police he had touched other children in the past. He was sentenced to five years in prison but was released on parole after two years. Despite the requirements of his conviction, Couey had failed to register with authorities when he moved in with his half-sister, which meant the Lunsfords had no idea a sex offender was living nearby.
“The problem is still growing,” Mark said at Couey’s sentencing, according to CNN. “Children are still being molested. Sex offenders and predators are still being released. Justice was served for this little girl, but what about the rest of them? What about the ones that survive? You can't do anything to bring my daughter back, but you can do everything to save these other kids.”
Mark made it his mission to ensure other children would not suffer the same way Jessica had. He lobbied for tougher sex offender laws across the nation, including in his home state of Florida, which in 2005 enacted the Jessica Lunsford Act, also known as Jessica’s Law.
The Florida statute mandates stricter registration requirements and harsher penalties for sex offenders, such as electronic monitoring for certain individuals, a 25-year minimum prison sentence for incidents involving children under 12, and twice-yearly, in-person check-ins at the local sheriff’s office.
Dozens of other states followed suit, passing similar laws that cracked down on sex offenders and improved tracking.
Changes to the Law
It’s not surprising that Jessica’s death led to legislative changes, Colleen M. Berryessa, an associate professor at the Rutgers-Newark School of Criminal Justice, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. Her murder is an example of a seminal event—a high-profile crime that drew intense media coverage and widespread public outrage.
“This put pressure on legislators to quickly enact legislation that was perceived to prevent sexual victimization and achieve ‘justice,’” she says.
Yet experts believe these types of laws are largely ineffective—and may even be making the problem worse.
“Basically, it’s legislation that makes us feel better and safer but, in reality, there’s no evidence to really support that,” Elizabeth Jeglic, a clinical psychologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and CUNY Graduate School who studies sexual violence prevention, sexual abuse and sexual grooming, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.
Jeglic notes that research shows such laws often destabilize people convicted of sex offenses.
“When [perpetrators] come back into the community, they can’t find work, they’re ostracized,” she adds. “By not giving them the things they need to reacclimatize, it can actually put them at increased risk for reoffending.”
Additionally, Jeglic points out that most sexual abuses are committed by someone the victim already knows—just 31% are committed by strangers, according to the nonprofit Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Legislation based on “stranger danger,” she says, serves as a distraction from the true problem.
“It doesn’t feel good to us to think people in our child’s surroundings could be the ones who are hurting them, but that’s the reality,” she says. “[These incidents] go undisclosed and undetected because we’re still telling kids, ‘Don’t take candy from strangers,’ and, ‘If somebody stops you, run away.’ But we don’t talk about what to do when it’s your friend, your uncle, your teacher at school. Those are the kinds of things we want to be talking about more.”
Berryessa echoes this, adding that legislation like Jessica’s Law is expensive to implement—and that those funds could be better spent on programs that address the root causes of sexual abuse and reduce recidivism.
The public, Berryessa says, is largely unaware that these policies fail to achieve their intended goals. But even when people are aware, research suggests many still want the statutes to remain in place.
“By keeping laws on the books that do not address the core issues that lead to and do little to prevent sexual offending, we put ourselves in a position to see the same issues and levels of victimization continue in society moving forward,” Berryessa says.
Jessica Lunsford’s Legacy Lives On
Beyond the legislative changes, Jessica’s memory endures in other ways, too. Homosassa Elementary School installed a playground in her memory, and the Citrus County Children’s Advocacy Center was renamed in her honor. Staff and volunteers at “Jessie’s Place” continue to work tirelessly to protect local children from violence, abuse and neglect.
It’s now been 20 years since Jessica was murdered, but to her family, it feels like the brutal crime took place yesterday.
“Grief lasts forever,” Mark told the Citrus County Chronicle in February 2025. “... Those pains never go away… Grief is like an open wound, and when you’re reminded of it, then it reopens and it hurts all over again.”
