Sex Offender Registration Research Paper

Sex offender registration is a system for monitoring and tracking sex offenders following their release into the community. The registration system provides important information about convicted sex offenders to local and federal authorities and to the public. Registration laws require that sex offenders provide information such as their criminal history, physical description, and their home address. In some areas of the United States, the lists of all sex offenders are made available to the public. They can be made available through newspapers, community notification, or the Internet. In other areas, the complete lists are not available for the public but are known to the police. Sex offender registration is mandatory if a person pleads or

is found guilty of violating any of the listed offenses, regardless the nature of the offense or offender.

A sentencing judge does not sentence a person who was convicted into the sex offender registry. They cannot also usually use judicial discretion and decide on their own if registration is required no matter the circumstances. Depending on the jurisdiction, the offenses that require registration can range all the way from public urination to violent rape and sexual murders involving children. Sex Offenders are often classified in three categories: Level I, Level II, and Level III offenders. In certain areas the level of an offender is determined based on the evaluated recidivism risk of the individual offender. Other places base it on the morality of the conviction, without assessing the risk level posed by the offender. This need for sex offender registration laws came about after a parent’s worst nightmare.

b. On Oct. 22, 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped while biking home from a convenience store. After 25 years later, Jacob still remains missing, and the identity of his kidnapper is still unknown. After doing research, Patty Wetterling, Jacob’s mother, found out that the state she lived in had no database that might help the police identify a list of potential suspects. She also learned that Congress had never tried to create a national approach to sex

offender registration and was determined to change this. In the 1990s, came about the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act. Jacob’s Law used federal revenue to try and get every state to create a sex offender registry. Today, all 50 states and Washington, D.C., have sex offender registration systems. Since then Congress has also passed related statutes named Megan’s Law, which went into law in 1996, that required the police to give public access to some form of sex offender registry data. Then in 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act strengthened the requirements for who must register and for how long and required periodic in-person visits to authorities. Theoretical underpinnings of sex offender registration laws were based on the assumptions that sex offenders were believed to be at a high risk for reoffending and it was thought that strangers commonly committed sex offenses against children. The goals of creating sex offender registration laws were intended solely to aid law enforcement in tracking and apprehending recidivist offenders and help local households protect themselves through monitoring and avoiding offenders in their neighborhoods. The notification laws aimed at reducing crime through greater public awareness of nearby sex offenders and help reduce crime by raising the punishment for first-time sex offenders whose crimes and personal information will be made public upon release if they are caught and convicted. Basically the goal of sex offender registration laws is that if police had a list of these sex offenders and the public was able access it, children would be safer.
c. This paper will provide empirical evidence that will either support or question the effectiveness of sex offender registration laws and the reduction of crime.