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Sex offenders

SORNA: Text of Registration Offense

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 a 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 have since clarified this requirement...

SORNA: Determination of Residence, Homeless Offenders and Transient Workers

Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), requires that jurisdictions must register homeless and transient sex offenders, as well as offenders without fixed employment locations. The National Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification advise that, for the purposes of registration under SORNA, a sex offender resides in a jurisdiction when...

Using Risk Assessment Under SORNA

Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), requires a conviction-based structure for sex offenders' registration and notification requirements. SORNA does not address the use of risk assessment tools for registration or notification purposes. Many jurisdictions currently use risk assessment processes for a variety of purposes. These include aiding in making release...

Community Notification Requirements of SORNA

Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), requires that registration jurisdictions immediately provide any initial or updated information about a sex offender to entities that fall under specific categories (see 34 U.S.C. §20923(b)). Each category is addressed in turn below, with direction on how jurisdictions can substantially implement its terms...

SORNA In Person Registration Requirements

Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), requires that a registered sex offender appear in person regularly to update certain registration information according to the following criteria (see 34 U.S.C. § 20918):

  • Tier I offenders must appear once per year for 15 years
  • Tier II offenders must appear every six...

Byrne JAG Grant Reductions Under SORNA

34 U.S.C. § 20927(a) sets forth a penalty for jurisdictions that fail to substantially implement Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA):

For any fiscal year after the end of the period for implementation, a jurisdiction that fails, as determined by the Attorney General, to substantially implement this title shall not...

SMART Workshops

The Justice Department’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART) recently held its 2014 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) Workshops Jan. 22-23 and Feb. 25-26, at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, S.C.

"Our primary mission is to help our state, tribal, and territorial partners meet their responsibilities for registering, tracking and notifying communities about sex offenders," said Acting...

2007 SMART National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

  • Guidelines Review, Guidelines Q and A Session, and Technology Update 
  • Cross Agency Coordination and Collaboration
  • National Sex Offender Registry

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Track 1

  • Bringing State Legislation into Compliance
  • Leveraging Resources
  • Adam Walsh Act: Case Law Update
  • Open Forum for State Registries

Track 2

  • SORNA and the Military
  • SORNA and Interpol
  • Sex Offender Registration and Tracking
  • United States Marshals Service...

2008 SMART National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability

The 2008 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability was held July 30 - August 1 in Baltimore, Maryland. Approximately 900 people attended the two and a half day conference. The Opening Ceremony included an honor song performed by Dennis W. Zotigh, Community Events Coordinator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and Kiowa, Ohkay Oweengeh Pueblo and Santee Dakota Indian.

The...

2009 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability

The 2009 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability was held April 21-23 in Houston, Texas, to provide jurisdictions with advanced training as they work towards implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The Symposium offered nationally recognized expert speakers and panel presentations in all areas of sex offender management...

2010 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability

The 2010 National Symposium on Sex Offender Management and Accountability was held May 18-20, in Portland, Oregon. The Symposium provided jurisdictional representatives with advanced training to assist in their work towards implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), and offered nationally-recognized expert speakers and panel presentations in various areas of sex offender management and accountability.

The 142nd Fighter Wing International Guard began...

Campuses Share and Respond to Information About Sex Offenders in Varying Ways

Campuses often share sexual misconduct violation information internally, few share externally.

As schools have worked to improve their responses to campus sexual assault and misconduct, some have increased their use of transcript notation ― putting a statement on the academic record of a student found responsible for a sexual misconduct violation. But, there is little information about how transcript notations are used by the originating school or...

SOMAPI Webinar Series

The National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) hosted a nine-part webinar series based on the SMART Office's Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative (SOMAPI). The webinars are designed to provide policymakers and practitioners with trustworthy, up-to-date information they can use to identify and implement effective means to combat sexual offending and prevent sexual victimization. Topics include the incidence and prevalence of sexual offending; the etiology...

Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative

Perpetrators of sex crimes are often seen as needing special management practices. As a result, jurisdictions across the country have implemented laws and policies that focus specifically on sex offenders, often with extensive public support. At the same time, the criminal justice community has increasingly recognized that crime control and prevention strategies—including those targeting sex offenders—are far more likely to work when they are based on scientific evidence.

Recognizing the important role scientific evidence plays, the SMART Office developed the Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative (SOMAPI), a project designed to assess the state of research and practice in sex offender management. Recommendations stemming from SOMAPI informed this report.