FAQ Listing

Tribal convictions are treated the same as other jurisdictional convictions under SORNA, which requires registration for anyone convicted of a sex offense. This includes "a State, local, tribal, foreign, or military offense ... or other criminal offense" (see 34 U.S.C. § 20911(6)).

No. SORNA establishes a national baseline for sex offender registration and notification programs. It constitutes a set of minimum national standards for jurisdictions. For example, a jurisdiction may have a system that requires registration by broader classes of convicted offenders than those identified in SORNA. A jurisdiction may require verification of registration information by sex offenders with greater frequency than SORNA requires. A jurisdiction may require sex offenders to register for longer periods than those required by the SORNA standards. Per the Attorney General’s Final Guidelines, the SMART Office may approve a jurisdiction’s implementation efforts that do not exactly follow all specifications of SORNA or the guidelines if those efforts do not substantially disserve a requirement’s objectives.

The SMART Office’s senior policy advisors are available to review legislation and court decisions to determine if they impact a jurisdiction’s SORNA implementation status. Email [email protected] or call 202-514-4689 for assistance.

Under SORNA, the SMART Office provides several registry and public website tools at no cost. SMART provides a registry tool for states and territories (Sex Offender Registry Tool and a hosted registry program for tribes and territories (Tribe and Territory Sex Offender Registry System). The SMART Office also provides a platform for information sharing among jurisdictions (the SORNA Exchange Portal). Contact the SMART Office at [email protected] for more information.

The SMART Office provides technical assistance to states, the District of Columbia, local governments, territories, tribal governments and other public and private entities related to sex offender registration and notification, grants and financial management, and SMART-provided information technology programs.

To request technical assistance from the SMART Office, please fill out this request form and email it to [email protected] or call 202-514-4689 for more information.

SORNA requires sex offenders to register and keep their registration current in each jurisdiction where they live, work or go to school.

See Part VIII of the Final Guidelines for more details.

SORNA requires that a sex offender must appear in person, allow the jurisdiction to take a current photograph and verify the information in each jurisdiction in which that sex offender is required to register (where they live, work and go to school) at least―

• Annually for a tier I sex offender,
• Every six months for a tier II sex offender, and
• Every three months for a tier III sex offender.

SORNA specifies the minimum required duration of sex offender registration for tier I sex offenders to be 15 years, for tier II sex offenders to be 25 years, and for tier III sex offenders to register for life. The registration period begins upon release from custody for a sex offender sentenced to incarceration for the registration offense; in the case of non-incarcerated sex offenders, the registration period begins at the time of sentencing for the sex offense.

SORNA allows jurisdictions to reduce an offender’s registration period in two circumstances: 1) a tier I sex offender who maintains a clean record may have their registration period reduced from 15 to 10 years and 2) a sex offender who is required to register for life based on a juvenile delinquency adjudication may have their registration terminated after maintaining a clean record for 25 years.

To have a clean record, the sex offender must satisfy the following:

• Not be convicted of any offense for which imprisonment for more than one year may be imposed,
• Not be convicted of any sex offense regardless of the penalty,
• Successfully complete any periods of supervised release, probation or parole, and
• Successfully complete an appropriate sex offender treatment program certified by a jurisdiction or by the Attorney General.

Sex offenders who fail to register may be subject to failure-to-register charges depending on the jurisdiction’s laws. Additionally, if federal jurisdiction exists (such as interstate or international travel, travel in and out of Indian Country, or conviction for a federal sex offense requiring registration), a sex offender who knowingly fails to register or update a registration under SORNA can be prosecuted for a federal failure-to-register offense (under 18 U.S.C. § 2250) with up to 10 years of imprisonment.