Essay On Sex Offender Registration

Sex offender registration is a vital part of the corrections system as it keeps track of those who have committed crimes of a sexual nature against innocent victims. However, the sex offender registration system that is in place now has had its own beginning and changed over time to become the system it is today. J. Edgar Hoover, who was the director of the FBI in 1937, “declared a war on the ‘sexual criminal’ and implored the American people to consider the fact that the ‘sex fiend, most loathsome of all the vast army of crime, has become a sinister threat to the safety of American Childhood and womanhood” (Hemmens, 2007). Despite the massive efforts taken to ensure public safety, these types of crimes are still a threat today. The
With this in mind, the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act was enacted October 3, 1996. Within the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act it states that:
The Attorney General shall establish a national database at the Federal Bureau of Investigation to track the whereabouts and movement of-- (1) each person who has been convicted of a criminal offense against a victim who is a minor; (2) each person who has been convicted of a sexually violent offense; and (3) each person who is a sexually violent predator ("Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996 (1996 - S. 1675)").
There was a registration requirement also listed for the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act that said that for every individual living within a state that is without some minimal form of a sex offender registry is to, “register a current address, fingerprints of that person, and a current photograph of that person with the FBI for inclusion in the database established” ("Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996 (1996 - S.