Sex Offender

Abstract

Sex offence has been a burning problem of the society. Legislations have been passed by the government to stop the ever increasing rate of sex crimes. This paper talks of the laws passed by the government to combat such heinous crimes and details some facets of its implementation and challenges.

Sex Offender Registration

Sex offender registration involves the collection and upkeep of the database pertaining to details of the ones who are convicted, cautioned or released from prison for a sexual offence. The registration process has attained significant amount of importance as sexual offence is a heinous crime which leads to indelible mental torture.

There are more than half a million of sex offenders in America. There were and are many laws in place to handle this severe problem. According to the Pam Lychner Act of 1996, the Attorney had to maintain the database of certain convicted sex offenders. It also instructed to verify the whereabouts of the offenders who reside in states without a "minimally sufficient" sex offender registry program. Whenever these offenders were released from prison they had to inform the authorities within ten days. Then came the Jacob Wetterling law and Megan's law which provided the states financial assistance as well as discretionary powers on registering and notifying about the sex predators.

In 2006 President Bush passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act which segregated the culprits into various tiers making the laws more stringent for the gruesome criminals. A national registry for the offenders was to be formed and all the states and territories had to follow same rules to supply the information of the offenders on the Internet.

Despite all these laws, still some of the offenders are able to pass through the crack as many remain unidentified. Relatives and kith and kins of the victims are never brought to the book as they take advantage of being close to the victim and are never reported by kids due to hesitation or immaturity to decide. The state of California was first to implement the registration program. The people advocated for Proposition 83 for lifelong monitoring of the offenders and make the state free of predators but the proposition was later challenged.