How do I Find Out If Someone Has Been Convicted of a Sex Crime?
A series of laws passed by Congress in the mid-1990s mandate that convicted sexual offenders register their addresses with local police. Megan's Law, passed in 1996, requires that individual states must also set up community-notification programs, specifically creating websites containing state sex-offender information, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
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National/State Sex Offender Public Website
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The FBI's Crimes Against Children Unit and the Department of Justice have created a searchable database containing the identity and location of all known sex offenders. Information for all 50 states can be found on this website, including links to all individual state registries.
Online Records Searches
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Several websites have been set up by private citizens and various sex offender watchdog groups that can be used to look up criminal records. Although these websites will contain overlapping information, they are available to use for free.
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Concerns
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Keeping track of sex offenders is a difficult challenge for law enforcement because there are more than half a million registered offenders in the United States. However, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, passed in 2006, mandates specific registration requirements for sex offenders in all 50 states. "This act should close most of the loopholes that have allowed sex offenders to beat the system," according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
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References
Resources
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