NCJ Number
175303
Date Published
1997
Length
85 pages
Annotation
This report examines laws regarding sex offender registration and notification, and presents case studies on the laws and implementation issues in Alaska, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Washington.
Abstract
The analysis notes that Congress has enacted legislation that has affected the creation and implementation of State sex offender registration and notification systems. It passed laws in 1994 and 1996 that condition 10 percent of a State's allocation under the Byrne grant program on the establishment of effective systems for registering and tracking convicted sex offenders and on the dissemination of information to the community about the presence of sex offenders in their area. The four States were selected for the case studies to provide a sampling of the diverse types of notification provisions States have enacted. Alaska's law allows citizens to obtain information on request about sex offenders in their geographic areas. Louisiana's law requires convicted sex offenders to notify the community in which they choose to live of their presence. New Jersey has established stringent notification procedures for all local jurisdictions, whereas the Washington law allows local jurisdiction significant discretion in implementing notification. Researchers and State policymakers who are evaluating these programs should consider costs, explicit mandates versus flexible guidelines, policy and political issues, recidivism, arrest and conviction rates, compliance rates, active versus passive notification systems, offenders' rights and concerns, and vigilantism. Footnotes and appended information on Web sites, list of contacts, lists of laws and persons interviewed, and 16 references