States and territories that fail to substantially implement SORNA are subject to a 10% reduction in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funding pursuant to 34 U.S.C. § 10151 et seq. Tribal jurisdictions that fail to substantially implement SORNA are subject to delegation to the state in which their lands are located. 34 U.S.C. § 20929 (a)(2)(C) of SORNA provides that if "the Attorney General determines that the tribe has not substantially implemented the requirements of this subtitle and is not likely to become capable of doing so within a reasonable amount of time" then the sex offender registry function may be delegated to the state.
See Parts II.A and II.E of the Final Guidelines for more details.
The following information is required to be collected and included in a jurisdiction’s sex offender registry:
- Criminal history
- Date of birth
- DNA sample
- Driver’s license or identification card
- Employer information
- Fingerprints
- Internet identifiers
- Name
- Palm prints
- Passport and immigration documents
- Phone numbers
- Photograph
- Physical description
- Professional licensing information
- Residence information
- School information
- Social Security number
- Temporary lodging information
- Text of registration offense
- Vehicle information
SORNA requires jurisdictions immediately share information with other jurisdictions and specified entities, and post much of the information on public sex offender registry websites.
See Part VII of the Final Guidelines for more details.
SORNA requires that the following offender information be posted on public sex offender registry websites:
- Name, including any aliases.
- Resident address, including any information about where the offender "habitually lives."
- Employer address, including any place the sex offender is employed, works or volunteers.
- School address, including any place where the sex offender attends school.
- Vehicle(s) license plate number and description.
- Physical description.
- Current offense, including the sex offense for which the offender is currently required to register and any other sex offense for which the sex offender has been convicted.
- Photograph, which must be kept current.
Jurisdictions may exempt from public posting information about tier I sex offenders convicted of offenses against adults (under section 118(c)(1)) and juveniles adjudicated delinquent of sexual offenses.
See Part VII.A of the Final Guidelines and the 2011 Supplemental Guidelines for more details.
Jurisdictions are prohibited from disclosing five types of information on their publicly accessible sex offender websites. This mandatory exemption does not limit jurisdictions from disclosing this information in other contexts, such as to law enforcement. The mandatory exempted types of information are―
- The victim’s identity,
- The Social Security number of the sex offender,
- Any reference to arrests of the sex offender that did not result in conviction,
- Passport and immigration document numbers, and
- Internet identifiers.
See Part VII.A of the Final Guidelines for more details.
After a sex offender registers or updates a registration, the information in a registry (other than information exempted from disclosure by the Attorney General) must be provided to various specified entities and individuals. These include the following:
- Certain federal law enforcement databases.
- Law enforcement and supervision agencies.
- Any jurisdiction where the sex offender lives, works or goes to school, and each jurisdiction from or to which a change of residence, employment or student status occurs.
- Any agency responsible for conducting employment-related background checks under section 3 of the National Child Protection Act of 1993.
- Each school and public housing agency in each jurisdiction where the sex offender lives, works or goes to school.
- Social service entities responsible for protecting minors in the child welfare system.
- Volunteer organizations in which contact with minors or other vulnerable individuals might occur.
- Any organization, company or individual who requests such notification pursuant to procedures established by the jurisdiction.
The requirements in the list above for sharing information among jurisdictions and with certain governmental entities (such as law enforcement agencies) are subject to special standards and procedures described in the Final Guidelines.
With respect to schools, public housing, social service and volunteer organizations, as well as any request for notification, these information dissemination objectives can be achieved by incorporating appropriate notification functions into the sex offender websites. Specifically, a jurisdiction can meet SORNA requirements in this regard if it adopts an automated notification system that incorporates substantially the following features:
- The information required to be included on sex offender websites is posted on the jurisdiction’s sex offender website within three business days.
- The jurisdiction’s sex offender website includes a function that allows members of the public and organizations to request email notification when sex offenders commence living, working or going to school within ZIP code or geographic radius areas specified by the requester.
- After a jurisdiction’s public registry website is updated with new residence, employment or school attendance information for a sex offender in an area specified by the requester, the system automatically sends an email notice to the requester identifying the sex offender sufficiently that the requester can search for and locate the offender’s information on the website.
The Department of Justice has developed software resources to support an automated email notification system that is available to all registry jurisdictions.
See Part VII.B of the Final Guidelines for more details.
SORNA requires registration for a defined class of older juveniles who are adjudicated delinquent for committing particularly serious sexual assault crimes (or attempts or conspiracies to commit such crimes). 34 U.S.C. § 20911 provides that delinquency adjudications are considered convictions under SORNA "only if the offender is 14 years of age or older at the time of the offense and the offense adjudicated was comparable to or more severe than aggravated sexual abuse (as described in section 2241 of title 18, United States Code), or was an attempt or conspiracy to commit such an offense."
In 2016, the Attorney General issued Supplemental Juvenile Registration Guidelines to provide guidance on the juvenile registration requirement under SORNA. Under the Supplemental Juvenile Registration Guidelines, when determining if a jurisdiction has substantially implemented SORNA, the SMART Office can consider a jurisdiction’s policies and practices to 1) prosecute as adults juveniles who commit serious sex offenses, 2) register juveniles adjudicated delinquent for serious sex offenses and 3) track, monitor or manage juveniles adjudicated delinquent for serious sex offenses.
SORNA applies to all sex offenders, including those convicted of their registration offenses prior to the enactment of SORNA (July 27, 2006) or prior to particular jurisdictions’ incorporation of the SORNA requirements into their programs. Jurisdictions are specifically required to register such sex offenders if they remain in the system as prisoners, supervisees or registrants, or if they later re-enter the system because of conviction for some other crime (whether or not the new crime is a sex offense). See Part II.C and IX of the Final Guidelines for more details.
Foreign convictions require sex offenders to be registered under SORNA unless the foreign conviction "was not obtained with sufficient safeguards for fundamental fairness and due process for the accused." The Final Guidelines establish rules for determining if legal processes in foreign countries meet the standard required under SORNA.
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)).