What makes a registered sex offender

Those convicted of more violent crimes are typically required to remain registered for a longer period and to update their address more frequently.

If you discover that a registered sex offender is living nearby, you can take steps to increase your family's safety. These requirements serve as a baseline that all states are encouraged but not required to meet. While failure to register as a sex offender is federal offense, the system for enforcing registration is imperfect—and there are many perpetrators who do not register or keep their information updated according to the terms of the sentence.

In the event that an unregistered sex offender is convicted of a new violent federal crime, up to 30 years can be added to the sentence.

To speak with someone who is trained to help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at HOPE or chat online at online. There is no foolproof way to protect children from sexual abuse, but there are steps you can take to reduce this risk. Like a lot of other "seemed like a good idea at the time" tough-on-crime laws, the sex offender regime was built in the s under President Bill Clinton who signed Megan's Law in And just as other tough-on-crime laws relied on stereotypes like the "child superpredator," laws like Megan's Law were designed to contain a stereotypical "sexual predator.

The "predator" panic had been raging since the early s, when several communities around the US got caught up in allegations of widespread child molestation at schools, often after children "recovered" supposedly repressed memories. Richard Beck's book We Believe the Children is a very good critical history of this period, if you're interested. It thrived on the anxieties of middle-class, suburban parents — who didn't live in high-crime areas themselves even during the height of the lateth-century crime wave but still didn't exactly feel safe.

According to the stereotype, sexual predators preyed exclusively and deliberately on children — and, most importantly, they were pathological about it. In lawmakers' eyes, sex offenders could not be reformed. The only thing the government could do was help the public protect itself from them — depriving them the opportunity to commit future crimes.

It's worth noting that most sex offenses are still committed against minors though that's partly because there are more crimes involving minors that count as sex offenses. But the definition of "sex offender," both legally and popularly, covers not just people who victimize children but a wide degree of crimes involving sex — including sexual assault and rape. Regardless of what kind of sex offense is committed, though, all the perpetrators end up on the same list.

Some of the activists who inspired registry laws to begin with, like Nancy Wetterling the mother of Jacob Wetterling , have since turned against them. Some of them are people like Turner — whose crime is arguably seen as more heinous to the public or at least some members of the public than it might have been when Megan's Law was passed 20 years ago.

Some may not think it's exactly tragic that Turner will end up suffering from unintended consequences because he's on the registry. Nor does preventing him from working as a hearing aid salesman.

Even the backbone of sex offender registries — the fact that they're publicly available for community notification — makes sense in the context of serial child molestation, but not in the context of serial rape. Knowing what sort of adults live next door might help you protect your kid from getting kidnapped. But you can't Google your way to safety if — as Brock Turner's victim didn't — you don't know your assailant's name.

Preventing someone from reoffending depends on what he's done and who he is. A one-size-fits-all registry makes that impossible. Every state as required by federal law keeps a database of people living in the state who've been convicted of sex offenses. Every state puts at least some of that database online for the public to check.

States vary in terms of how many sex offenders are publicly listed and how much information is provided. In California, for example, someone who's committed "assault with intent to rape" like Brock Turner gets his name, picture, and the town where he's living listed on the site, but not his address or workplace.

Sex offenders convicted of more serious crimes in California, however, do get their addresses listed. In some states and cities, police officers are allowed or required to notify the neighbors whenever a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. When they aren't, neighbors often step in to do the job — and, often, encourage the person to move elsewhere. It's theoretically illegal to use the sex offender registry to discriminate against sex offenders in things like housing or jobs, but there's an exception if you're protecting the safety of a "person at risk.

The federal Adam Walsh Act set a minimum period of time that offenders had to stay on the registry, depending on the seriousness of their offense. But plenty of states require offenders to stay on for longer — many of them for life. That's all that's officially required, at least at the federal level. But because of concern about child predators — and the sex offender registry is such a visible, readily available tool — sex offenders also have to deal with a raft of "collateral consequences": restrictions they face above and beyond their official punishment.

Because sex offenders are still characterized as child predators, states and cities commonly ban them from living within a certain distance of schools, parks, day cares, or "other place s children may gather," in the words of the Council on State Governments. The same logic has led dozens of states to require GPS monitoring for sex offenders. As of , 27 states had passed some form of residency restriction on sex offenders.

Hundreds of cities have done the same. These laws are a classic case of unintended consequences, especially in urban areas where it might be hard to find housing that isn't within 2, feet of anywhere children may "gather. In San Diego, a federal judge ruled that a California residency restriction law was unconstitutional in Residency restrictions consumed "huge swaths of urban and suburban San Diego" according to the district attorney's office.

Restrictions covered more than 97 percent of "multifamily" housing like apartment buildings and long-resident hotels — the places where sex offenders, who often don't have families or earn enough to live in single-family homes, tend to live. That's over and above the typical sorts of collateral consequences — laws restricting whom sex offenders can live with, where they can be licensed to work, and what sorts of benefits they can get. States pass all sorts of restrictions like this on people with criminal records.

Individually, they often make sense — or at least they aren't objectionable. The problem is in the aggregate: They end up making it much more difficult for ex-offenders to earn a living and reintegrate into their communities.

And because the sex offender registry is right there in the public eye, it's more likely to be the target of collateral consequences than most. In California, for example, there are mandatory restrictions on sex offenders. Most, again, have to do with children: Offenders can't live with an adopted child which can preclude them from staying with relatives , can't work in public parks, and can't enter school grounds without "lawful business. And, of course, it's legal for employers to refuse to hire sex offenders even when there's no law mandating it.

In addition to the hassle of registering and the effect on efforts to find a job or housing, registered sex offenders often confront other issues. Individuals who have been required to register as sex offenders have at times been targeted by their neighbors for eviction, threatened, and even physically attacked. In , Evan B. The authorities arrested Evan for indecent exposure, and he spent four months in jail.

He also had to register as a sex offender under Oklahoma law, and the registration requirement was to continue for ten years. Evan killed himself a month before his 20 th birthday. A very significant additional risk to a person convicted of certain sex offenses including indecent exposure and possessing child pornography, in some states is that of possibly being further designated as a sexually violent predator subject to civil commitment.

The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site.

The attorney listings on this site are paid attorney advertising. In some states, the information on this website may be considered a lawyer referral service. Please reference the Terms of Use and the Supplemental Terms for specific information related to your state. Market Your Law Firm. Lawyer Directory. Call us at 1 State Sex Offender Registration. What Is a "Sex Offender"? For purposes of sex offender registration laws, a sex offender may include a person who was convicted of any of the following, depending on the state of conviction or residence: knowing or intentional transmission of an STD consensual sex between teenagers possessing child pornography soliciting a prostitute even an adult prostitute public urination , or indecent exposure even by a high school student.

Information about a sex offender that must be registered typically includes: name and aliases residence, work, and school addresses palm prints and fingerprints a physical description, including any identifying features description and date of the crime of conviction the jurisdiction in which the person was convicted a current photograph a copy of a driver's license, license plate number, and description of all vehicles owned, including boats and aircraft the person's social security number and date of birth every email address, online screen name, social network "handle," or any other online identity used, and copy of the offender's passport or immigration papers.

How Long Is Registration Required?