Sex Offender Registration is Publicly Available

We often get questions on what happens if you don't register as a sex offender if you are required to do so.  The answer is fairly simple, it is a federal crime to fail to register and keep that registration current in those locales where you may live, work, or attend school.

In addition, federal law requires the states to make certain information available to the public through the Internet. The minimum information that must be provided is the accused's name, address or employment locations, vehicle descriptions and license plate numbers, the offense for which convicted, and current photograph.  The publicly accessible database must be searchable by zip code or a user-provided geographical radius. All those registered in a state registry are also collected in one place on a combined national, name-searchable database. This federally maintained web site is a search tool allowing a user to submit a single national query to obtain information about sex offenders through a number of search options for all jurisdictions.