 Research on sex offender laws and their effects on people and society 
Introduction to the Sex Offender Registries by Marshall Burns, Ph.D. Detailed comments for Q&A # 1: “What is a sex offender registry?” A sex offender registry is an official government listing of people who have been convicted of certain crimes of a sexual nature. There are registries in every US state and six other countries, although the United States is the only place where the information is publicly available on the Internet. The first major SO registry was established by California in 1947; most other US states set theirs up in the mid-1990s. 
A sex offender registry is a collection of information about people who have been convicted of crimes that are designated as “sex offenses.” Such registries may be maintained by cities, townships, counties, states, or countries. A registered sex offender is a person listed on a sex offender registry. In jurisdictions that have an SO registry, the term sex offender is usually used as synonymous with registered sex offender. What crimes (registrable offenses) qualify a person for inclusion is determined by the laws of the jurisdiction establishing the registry, and they vary considerably. For example, see the list of registrable offenses for Alabama, California adults and juveniles, and Wisconsin. These offenses may range from indecent exposure (including public urination, “streaking”, or “mooning”) to violent rape of a child. Some states include nonsexual, violent offenses against a child, such as kidnapping, but most registrable offenses are explicitly sexual in nature. In the United States, sex offender registries are maintained by many local jurisdictions, as well as by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (See NCMEC map.) At the federal level, the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry serves as a portal to information provided by the individual states’ registries. There is no official government tally of the number of people on the registries in the US. Numbers reported by state agencies and unofficial national totals are generally exagerated. Careful analysis indicates the correct number is likely in the neighborhood of 550,000. For more information on this, see Q&A # 2 and the SOLR report, Counting and Over-Counting Sex Offenders. The first state registry was set up by California in 1947.1 Five states followed suit in the 1950s and ’60s and by the early 1990s twelve states had established one.1 In 1994, the federal government required all states to have one,2 with a three-year deadline to avoid a financial penalty.3 The remaining 38 states then stepped up quickly and in August 1996 the 50th one was set up by Massachusetts.1 A national registry was established that same year.4 Human Rights Watch reported5 in 2007 that six other countries have sex offender registries: Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
A sex offender registry may be public, meaning its information is freely available, generally on the Internet, or access to it may be restricted to police and other government agencies. Some registries are part public and part restricted. For example, a 2006 analysis6 by National Public Radio showed that 23 states only provide public access to the listings of people who are considered dangerous or are repeat offenders, while in 25 states all types of offenders are shown on the public websites. Similarly, some states only show the listings of adult registrants, while others include juveniles on their websites. According to the Human Rights Watch report, all registries outside the US are restricted; only the US has public registries. Sex offender laws generally require a person who has been convicted of a registrable sex offense anywhere to register him- or herself in any jurisdiction in which he or she lives, works, and/or goes to school, and to keep the registry record up to date. However, law enforcement agencies also have data on convicted individuals and if a person does not register as required, then his or her name will be put on the registry as noncompliant. Almost all registered sex offenders are adult men, although the number of women and juveniles on the registries is growing. Approximately one out of every 220 adult men in the United States is a registered sex offender. (For proof of that number, see the SOLR report, Count Analysis of the US Registries.) People, including juveniles, may be required to register for decades, or for life. The Human Rights Watch study found7 that 17 US states require lifetime registration for all sex offenders, no matter how minor the offense.
This report posted on January 28, 2009. This page copyright © 2007–2009, Marshall Burns. All rights reserved. |
