Sex Offender Registration Violations

A special sex offender registry is a source of personal information on sex crimes offenders. The main purpose of it is tracking sex offenders and monitoring their life after the charges. These registers are often open to the public, so everyone can check if any sex offenders are living near him or her using special websites.

Each state creates its own sex registration system as well as a sex offenders’ database. Some of them have different requirements including the kind of personal information the offender should provide or the kind of personal data the public can see openly, so it is better to check the necessary laws in each state.

In 2006, SORNA (Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act) was made to improve the national system of registration programs and to strengthen national standards for that network. Though not every state nowadays keep these increased standards, some of them still have different variations of them in their state laws.

Asking your sex offender registration violations lawyer about all the details is an important task for you because a fact you did not know you are breaking the law is not a reason for the defense.

VIOLATED SEX OFFENDER REGISTER LAWS?

Every offender charged with a specific sex crime or crime including children should be registered immediately in the place of his or her living. Usually, it is also a regular procedure of re-registration, for example, every year or two. The offender must register whenever he or she moves. Any sex offender registration violation is a criminal offense itself. The personal information you need to provide can be different from state to state, but it always includes a name of the offender, his or her date of birth, basic addresses, actual photography, probably social security number, and other general offense information. Sometimes it also includes DNA samples and/or fingerprints. Some of these personal facts may not be available to see for everyone, there are also some registers that only the FBI or U.S. Attorneys can check.

Sometimes in specific cases, an offender can get a chance to have information about him or her prevented from being open to the public. It is also possible in some situations to make a petition to ask for the removing of somebody’s name from the sex offender register.

All jurisdictions are required to have a failure to register statute for anyone mandated to register as a sex offender as required by SORNA. The penalty for sex offender registration violation is a maximum term of imprisonment exceeding more than one year. Indian tribes are also required to have a statute for sex offender registration violations, but by definition, the term of imprisonment does not have to exceed one year.

There are also some important things to note regarding the federal sex offender registration violations law. Even if you were convicted on a state level of a sex crime, the federal government for failure to register as a sex offender can still prosecute you. The purpose of SORNA is to monitor and track sex offenders as they are released back into the community. Any attempt to circumvent this is considered a sex offender registration violation under federal law.