National Sex Offenders Public Website

Not very long ago I wrote two articles titled Not all Sex Offenders are Created Equal Part 1 and 2.  These articles tried to identify different staged or types of sex offenders as well as address the need for a National system of identification opposed to a state by state system.  Shortly after posting these articles I  found SMART ( Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking) at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/smart/guidelines_final.htm.

This is the final guidelines for Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, as published in the Federal Register on July 2, 2008.  Unfortunately these are only published as Guidelines for the states to follow. They do establish a national baseline for sex offender registration and notification programs. In other words, the Act sets a minimum national standard and sets a floor, not a ceiling, for jurisdictions’ programs. However it does not set a standard for national registration which I still feel is necessary in order for tracking of sex offenders from state to state. 

Along with that I found that the Department of Justice has a site that allows you to search nationally called the National Sex Offenders Public Website located at http://www.nsopr.gov/   For most people this wouldn’t be an issue but for some it can become an issue when a rapist or pedophile is sentenced on a federal charge to a prison out of state and then subsequently released in the state that they are imprisoned opposed to the one the committed the crime in or relocated to a neighboring state. 

I know that I personally can not fix the current state to state registration for sex offenders in the nation.  I can however keep myself informed and try to inform those around me and anyone willing to be informed of the tools available to help them locate offenders in their area as well as keep track of any offenders they may have personal reasons for keeping track of.