FAQ Listing

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 to run upon release from custody for a sex offender sentenced to incarceration for the registration offense, or in the case of non-incarcerated sex offenders, at the time of sentencing for the sex offense.

SORNA allows jurisdictions to reduce the registration period for a tier I sex offender by 5 years after the sex offender maintains a clean record for 10 years and to terminate registration for a sex offenders who is required to register under SORNA based on juvenile delinquency adjudication after the sex offender maintains a clean record for 25 years.

Achieving a clean record means the sex offender must fulfill the following requirements:

• 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, and parole, and
• Successfully complete an appropriate sex offender treatment program certified by a jurisdiction or by the Attorney General.

See Part XII of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

Jurisdictions are free to decide what certification criteria they will use and how they will determine which programs are ’certified by& the jurisdiction. For instance, a jurisdiction that established a board to certify treatment programs and determine which offenders successfully completed their certified programs would be in compliance with SORNA. Another possible option that would comply with SORNA would be to publish a list of approved programs and require a certificate of successful completion by the treatment provider. Other options also are possible. Determining a set of criteria for certification and how to certify programs is within each jurisdiction’s discretion.

SORNA requires jurisdictions (other than Indian tribes) to provide a criminal penalty that includes a maximum term of imprisonment greater than one year for the failure of a sex offender to comply with the SORNA requirements. Hence, a jurisdiction’s implementation of SORNA includes having a failure-to-register offense for which the maximum authorized term of imprisonment exceeds a year. Indian Tribes are also required to have a failure to register statute, though the maximum term of imprisonment, by definition, will not exceed one year.

See Part XIII of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

Under 18 U.S.C. §2250, the federal failure-to-register offense, a federal criminal penalty of up to 10 years of imprisonment exists for sex offenders required to register under SORNA who knowingly fail to register or update a registration as required where circumstances supporting federal jurisdiction exist, such as interstate or international travel or travel on or off an Indian reservation by a sex offender, or conviction of a federal sex offense for which registration is required.

See Part XIII of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

Yes. If a sex offender convicted or adjudicated delinquent in a jurisdiction’s court is required to register under SORNA, and knowingly fails to register or update a registration as required, and the sex offender engages in interstate or international travel or enter or leaves or resides in Indian country, then the offender can be prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. §2250, the federal failure-to-register offense.

See Part XIII of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

No. Residency restrictions and safety zones are NOT part of the Adam Walsh Act. All such restrictions are the result of jurisdictional or local legislation, not federal law or the Adam Walsh Act. Numerous jurisdictions and local entities do currently restrict sex offenders from living by or being present within certain areas (e.g., within a certain distance of schools, parks or playgrounds). All inquiries regarding residency restrictions or safety zones are a matter to be addressed at the jurisdictional and local level.

The SMART office provides technical assistance to states, the District of Columbia, units of local government, territories, tribal governments, and other public and private entities related to sex offender registration and notification, and the protection of children and adults from sexual molest, assault, and exploitation.

For technical assistance from the SMART office, please email [email protected] or call 202-514-4689.

No. SORNA establishes a national baseline for sex offender registration and notification programs. It constitutes a set of minimum national standards and sets a floor, not a ceiling, for jurisdiction programs. For example, a jurisdiction may have a system that requires registration by broader classes of convicted offenders than those identified in SORNA, or that requires in addition registration by certain classes of non-convicts (such as persons acquitted on the ground of insanity of sexually violent crimes or child molestation offenses, or persons released following civil commitment as sexually dangerous persons). A jurisdiction may require verification of the registered address or other registration information by sex offenders with greater frequency than SORNA requires, or by other means in addition to those required by SORNA (e.g., through the use of mailed address verification forms, in addition to in person appearances). A jurisdiction may require sex offenders to register for longer periods than those required by the SORNA standards. A jurisdiction may require that changes in registration information be reported by registrants on a more stringent basis than the SORNA minimum standards (e.g., requiring that changes of residence be reported before the sex offender moves, rather than within a short time frame following the move). A jurisdiction may extend web site posting to broader classes of registrants than SORNA requires, and may put up more information concerning particular registrants than SORNA requires.

No. Measures, which encompass the SORNA baseline of sex offender registration and notification requirements but go beyond them, have no negative implication concerning a jurisdiction implementation of or compliance with SORNA. This is so because the general purpose of SORNA is to protect the public from sex offenders and offenders against children through effective sex offender registration and notification, and it is not intended to preclude or limit state discretion to adopt more extensive or additional registration and notification requirements to that end. The only exception to this point is that SORNA Section 118(b) requires that the following types of information—victim identity, registrant Social Security Number, registrants’ arrests not resulting in conviction, and passport and immigration information—be excluded from publicly accessible state sex offender web sites. In all other respects, state discretion to go further than the SORNA minimum is not limited.