This essay argues that the United States needs more stringent laws governing sex offenders at every stage of the legal process, from initial reporting through sentencing and post-release tracking. It surveys the current legal landscape, including the Jacob Wetterling Act, Megan's Law, and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, noting persistent gaps such as the estimated 100,000 unregistered offenders. The paper then evaluates proposed reforms — specifically the Student Protection Act and California's Chelsea's Law — as meaningful steps toward closing those gaps. It also addresses civil liberties objections to tougher legislation before concluding that the safety of children must take precedence over concerns about offenders' rights.
Of all the violent crimes that plague our society, sex crimes are among the most terrifying. Catching rapists and sex abusers is one thing, but establishing both short- and long-term punitive consequences for this kind of deviant behavior has been a troubling path for policy-makers. Most of the victims of these crimes are young people, and those children are likely to suffer ongoing psychological distress long after the crime has occurred. Moreover, sex offenders are notorious recidivists; research supports the contention that even offenders who have been jailed are more likely to repeat their crime upon release than most other categories of criminals. Since most sex offenses result in short jail terms, the unfortunate reality is that thousands of sex offenders live relatively anonymously in our towns and communities, ready to strike again.
This essay argues that more stringent laws need to be established to deal with sex offenders at all stages of the legal process. Reporting requirements must be enhanced to make it easier to identify and capture repeat offenders. Minimum sentences should be increased to keep those offenders incarcerated longer. Once they are released, publicly accessible registries must be maintained. By tightening legal measures at every step of the system, sex offenders can be more reliably caught, more consistently imprisoned, and more effectively tracked once released.
Much of the debate surrounding sex offenders has focused on registration requirements for offenders who have either been released from jail or were never sentenced at all, despite having been convicted of a sex crime. Until recently, states had widely varying laws in place to manage their sex offenders, and only a few states had registration requirements for convicted offenders.
In 1994, Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Act (42 USC 1407). This Act requires all states to develop a registration system for offenders, and states that fail to comply face a 10% loss of federal funds for law enforcement. All states have since complied, and there are now more than half a million registered sex offenders nationwide (Sex Offenders).
However, registration alone proved insufficient. Following the tragic death of Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old girl killed by a recently released sex offender living in her neighborhood, a "public outcry created a call for programs to provide the public with information regarding released sex offenders" (Sex Offenders). Megan's Law was added to the federal legislation and became Section (e) of the Wetterling Act in 1996. All states are now required to provide internet information about registered sex offenders, though how and where to provide that information is left to the discretion of each state.
Despite these tightened restrictions, many sex offenders fail to register with the state and may all too easily slip through the cracks of the legal system. An estimated 100,000 sex offenders who should be registered have effectively gone missing (NCME, 2007). Efforts to tighten the implementation of sex offender laws have helped, but have not solved, this problem. In 2006, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was passed, focusing on standardizing states' implementation of their registry systems. Each state is also now required to create a searchable database available to the public so that people can find out whether any sex offenders live in their neighborhood. The Act made it a felony for sex offenders who move across state lines to fail to register their new address.
Although some new laws — most notably the Adam Walsh Act — are steps in the right direction, there is still a great deal of work to be done to keep children safe from sex offenders. While registry systems are improving to help keep community members aware of their risk from known offenders, much more needs to be done to prevent offenses from happening in the first place. This is a very difficult task, since it involves not only crime prevention but also risk detection and systems cohesion.
"Student Protection Act and Chelsea's Law proposals"
"Civil liberties objections and author's rebuttal"
Shih, Gerry (2010). After Another Murder, Another Proposed Law. The New York Times, April 13.
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