Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), requires that each jurisdiction’s registry include “[t]he text of the provision of law defining the criminal offense for which the sex offender is registered” (see 34 U.S.C. § 20914(b)(2)). The National Guidelines on Sex Offender Registration and Notification clarified this requirement, indicating that a jurisdiction may meet this SORNA requirement by ensuring that its internal registry database includes a link or citation to the statute defining the registration offense, so long as the following conditions are met: 
 

1. doing so provides online access to the linked or cited provision, and 
2. the link or citation will continue to provide access to the full text of the registration offense as formulated at the time the registrant was convicted of it, even if the defining statute is subsequently amended.  

On its public sex offender registry website, a jurisdiction needs only to include a citation to the statute under which the offender was convicted, along with the heading of that statute (e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 2241 – Aggravated sexual abuse), to satisfy the SORNA requirement. However, wherever possible, jurisdictions are encouraged to provide the text of the registration offense as well. 

The SMART Office maintains a database with statutes that date back to the 1960s, which is available to all SORNA jurisdictions. Please contact the SMART Office for more information about this resource.

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