TN Sex Offender Registration - Research Paper Example

Topic: TN Sex Offender registration publication There have been laws to legalize the punishment, treatment and custody of the sex offender prisoner at local, state and federal levels. Such laws cover the notification and registration of the sex offender along with their necessities, civil obligation and residency constraints. Jacob Wetter ling Crimes against the Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (BJA) was started in 1994; it involved states to implement the registration program of sex offenders. In 1996, BJA was further improved by Megan’s Law (PL 104-145) included the notification system to incorporate the community. Offender’s certain categorys life time registration authorization was implemented from the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act (PL 104-236) in 1996 (Strutin) . In 1998, Section 115 enclosed the requirements of the Title I, the General Provisions of the Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (CJSA) to alter the Watterling Act requirements. The requirements include sex, federal military offender’s catalog of workers and students who are nonresident and National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) participants (BJA). In 2000, Watterling Act was amended by the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act. It required offenders to report their wanted information regarding the employment or enrollment in any higher education institution to the law enforcement agencies that covered the institution jurisdiction (History of the JWA). Registration Process Responsible Agencies: Initial Registration and Timeframes Sex offenders must register themselves before or after the release from detention or punishment to supervision of the community. It’s better from Sentencing Court or the Department of Corrections to alert the offenders regarding their local registration and requirements after their probation sentence or release. Registration agency is normally the county police department or sheriff’s office in the area where an offender resides. Multiple agencies’ involvement is not exceptional for the registration of an offender’s progress throughout the assorted stages of the criminal justice procedure (Sex Offender Registration). Throughway Registration Requirements Registration laws in many states apply the same rules to offenders from one place to another. Offenders working, movements, enrollment in an education department in other states cascade in Watterling Act that registers them in the new states law enforcement agencies, normally within ten days (Sex Offender Registration). Collected Information They uphold registration information fluctuation includes address, name and identification number of the law enforcement force of the offender. Offenders photographs are obtained in 39 states as per the requirement of the registration. Other states retrieve photos from arrest record. Detailed information, residence data, four registration numbers of vehicles are also collected in a few states. DNA and blood samples are one of the several other requirements in 13 states (Sex Offender Registration). Requirement Duration Sex offenders’ registration requirement in all states is of 10 years. Lifetime registration of a few sex offenders’ is required in 40 states. States as per Wetterling Act specify not to include requirements to sentence court or petition for the relief in registration obligations for these offenders’ (Sex Offender Registration). Lifetime registration in a few states allows offenders to file the petition in court to end of requirements for the registration that usually follow 10 years period. The requirement of registration length in some states is according to the offense seriousness or number of convictions (Sex Offender Registration). Offenders who convicted crimes like sexual violence or children crimes offences need to register for 10 years according to the Wetterling Act following the residency or release on supervision. Nevertheless, sexual violence predators, recidivist and motivated sex offenders registration required for life (Sex Offender Registration).  Address Verification Updated address registration is required for the public and law enforcement force to maintain its usefulness. These are offenders’ responsibility to provide and update his current address. Change of address notification in some states is 10 days to offenders. As per the Wetterling Act, offender’s address verification in states must be done at least once a year. To complete this process a form from the law enforcement force is sent to the offender’s last reported address. This form must be returned personally or via mail within 10 days. Thirty three states require address verification from offenders on annual basis. Sexually violent predator requires updating their address quarterly in 22 states with the law enforcement force (Sex Offender Registration). Procedural guidelines related to the implementation of the registration/publication program. Sex Offender Treatment Board was created in the Department of Correction from the Tennessee General Assembly in 1995 (Tennessee Sex Offender Treatment Board). According to the General Assembly deceleration reference TCA 39-13-708 (a) "...comprehensive evaluation, identification, treatment and continued monitoring of sex offenders who are subject to the supervision of the criminal justice system are necessary in order to work toward the elimination of recidivism of such offenders" (Tennessee Sex Offender Treatment Board). Following activities were charged by the General Assembly Board: For the evaluation of sex offender identification an identical process was developed to standardize the procedure. Intervention methods implementing and developing Sex offender’s method implementation while in prison, parole, community correction or in Department of Correction was developing for the interference, in principle, guidelines.  Board was additionally charged to analyze and research on the effectiveness of the program which was developed for the sex offender registration and after that their tracking system. They also developed a program to monitor the behavior of the offender (Tennessee Sex Offender Treatment Board). Penalties for no Compliance Registration for the sex offender is mandatory and if any of them avoids the requirements then their cases are put on trial (Sex Offender Registration). The confinement term for the noncompliance is 90 days in Tennessee, Utah, California, North Dakota, Delaware and South Carolina (Sex Offender Registration). If a sex offender repeats his registration failure then he is supposed to be punished in eighteen states. The penalty varies as per the offense in a few states like Nebraska, Mississippi, California, Washington and Oregon.  Laws regulating sex offender’s lifestyle Law regarding the sex offender registration law in the United States is a common place now.  The Registration Law objective contains the increase of public safety, discouragement of sex offenders’ future attempts of crime and provides additional powers to the law enforcement.  States developed many approaches to achieve the required result to the registration of sex offenders. It contains the registration method detailing, policy and procedures development in written, information collection, the law enforcement access to information; effective information transfer of the sex offenders. And to make sure that offenders don’t cross the states line without any registration. U.S Supreme Court cases Megan Law is implemented in every state and is named on a seven-year old New Jersey girl, Megan Kanka. According to this law, sex offenders and other criminals, released from prisons, need to register. Sex offender’s registrations are available for the public through the internet and print sources (Mears). A question regarding the state law violation of the constitutional against punishment was raised in the first case from Alaska. In one case, John Doe was found guilty in abusing his younger daughter. In second case another man was also charged in abusing case of 14 year old girl. They were released in 1990. Six offender registration law was passed after their release. Both men demanded that they complete their sentence, and they confront to put their crimes behind. John Doe and the other offender were free in 1990, before the state passed its sex offender registration law. They claimed that they had served their sentences and wanted to put their crimes behind them (Mears). As per the court, state management intention was to set the law regulatory and not the nature corrective. The case result was declared for 6-3 majority and as per Justice Anthony Kennedy, "Our system does not treat dissemination of truthful information in furtherance of the legitimate governmental objection as punishment." Kennedy further noted, "The purpose and the principal effects of notification are to inform the public for its own safety, not to humiliate the offender” (Mears). Justice Bader Ginsburg was not agreed and she said, "However plain it may be that a former sex offender currently poses no threat of recidivism, he will remain subject to long-term monitoring and inescapable humiliation" (Mears). John Doe claims on Connecticut registry that they do not differentiate the seriousness of cases. He further said that they also did not allow offenders to attend the hearing to understand the dangerousness of their crimes. On John Doe case, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote, "could prove he is not likely to be currently dangerous, Connecticut has decided that the registry information of all offenders -- currently dangerous or not -- must be publicly disclosed" (Mears). Registration law supporters are agreed that a citizen of any state deserves to know if any sex offender is living in their neighborhood. They also agreed that registration laws are fair because the convictions are already in public record.  The court cases are Connecticut Department of the Public Safety v. Doe, 01-1231 and Smith v. Doe, 01-729 (Mears). Works Cited "BJA." n.d. Overview and History of the Jacob Wetterling Act. 3 November 2010 . Mears, Bill. "Supreme Court upholds sex offender registration laws." 2003. CNN Washington Bureau. 2010 November 2010 . "Overview and History of the Jacob Wetterling Act." n.d. BJA. 4 Novemvber 2010 . "Sex Offender Registration: Policy Overview and Comprehensive Practices." October 1999. C e n t e r F o r S e x O f f e n d e r M a n a g e m e n t. 3 November 2010 . Strutin, Ken. "Criminal Justice Resources: Sex Offender Laws." 2007. LLRX. 3 November 2010 . "Tennessee Sex Offender Treatment Board." n.d. 2010 Directory. 4 November 2010 . Read More