Briefly: Sex Offender Registries

What is it?

Sex offender registries are government databases containing information about individuals convicted of certain sexual offenses. Registration is usually court-ordered during sentencing and implemented as a regulatory measure to track and monitor certain convicted offenders who have completed an applicable period of incarceration. In some cases, courts or state laws impose additional restrictions on registered sex offenders who have committed sexual offenses against children. How registries are administered (e.g., publicly accessible or restricted to government use, permanent or time-limited, applicable to all sex offenders or only certain categories, etc.) varies widely across jurisdictions.

NCMEC's Position:

Why does it matter?

Offenders who sexually abuse or exploit children inflict serious and enduring harm on victims, often violating communities’ trust in the process. Most sex crimes against children are committed by family members or people known to the child, and are not immediately disclosed or reported, leaving many victims unidentified and subject to continued abuse, manipulation, and control by offenders in the absence of supportive interventions. Sex offender registries enable government officials to better monitor convicted sex offenders living in communities as an alternative to, or after release from, incarceration. Depending on public access to the registry, communities are able to access information about the presence of convicted sex offenders. Publicly accessible registries also can be used by online platforms to enforce their own terms of service prohibiting registered sex offenders from using their services. For these reasons—in addition to incarceration, community-based supervision, payment of restitution, and other sanctions—registration itself is important for public safety purposes.

Sex offender registries are a critical tool used by law enforcement, the public, child serving organizations and employers to protect children from sexual exploitation. Law enforcement can leverage registries as an intelligence tool making them better equipped to respond to crimes involving child sexual exploitation and abduction. Families and members of the public are better informed and educated to take measures to protect themselves and their children through prevention and safety planning. Employers can utilize sex offender registration data as one element of robust background screening for those seeking employment or volunteer positions that would give them access to children.

What context is relevant?

Sex offender registries are used in jurisdictions around the world. Certain international bodies—including INTERPOL, the European Parliament, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe—have advocated for the implementation of sex offender registries in member countries.

Registration programs can be implemented in numerous ways, with variations on how each of these factors is considered:

• Access – Some registries are restricted only to law enforcement use; others are publicly available on open websites, with various restrictions on which offenders or details are subject to public disclosure.
• Data – Registries may gather (and disclose) a variety of personal information and relevant details, including photos, full names, home and employment addresses, vehicle descriptions, and offense details.
• Offenses – Some registries apply only to child sex offense convictions, others to convictions for sex crimes designated as “serious,” and others to all sex offense convictions.
• Registrants – Some jurisdictions require registration only of adults convicted of relevant crimes, while others may also include juvenile offenders.
• Updates – Covered persons (those required to register) may need to update registrations annually, or within a certain time following a change of residence or employment, or to disclose planned travel; other registries may act more like databases of conviction information, without required periodic updates.
• Notifications – In some jurisdictions, registrations may prompt public notifications to communities about the presence of an offender.
• Travel – Some registries are used to monitor or restrict travel of covered persons.

The U.S. government uses its sex offender registry to notify—through identifiers on passports and direct communication—foreign immigration authorities when certain child sex offenders travel internationally. Other jurisdictions have taken more aggressive measures: Australia, Bermuda, and Japan require certain offenders to obtain explicit government permission before traveling. These measures rely on the existence of a sex offender registry.

Determining the effectiveness of a sex offender registry is dependent upon its intended or desired outcome. Public support for registries is strong—perhaps primarily to address a “right to know” about child sexual offenders in the community—including the belief that having the information can diminish feelings of fear, lack of safety, confusion, or loss of control and provide opportunities for planning and precautions.

What does the data reveal?

Meaningful globally relevant data about sex offender registries is difficult to discern, largely due to variations in how registration programs are implemented.

While the U.S. sex offender registry system is one of many variations on how these programs are implemented, U.S. data provides insights into information relating to sex offender registries, including the following:

• A 2024 NCMEC survey of states and territories found that there are more than 972,000 registered sex offenders in the United States.
• In 2023, NCMEC assisted with about 14,400 requests to help locate noncompliant sex offenders. Of those, feedback indicates that nearly 2,800 noncompliant sex offenders were subsequently located/arrested.
• NCMEC is aware of more than 5,000 arrests made in incidents involving attempted abduction of a child by someone unknown to them between 2005 and 2023. Of those arrests, more than 640 (13%) were known to be registered sex offenders at the time of the incident.

For additional insights, see the resources listed below.

What have survivors said about it?

Survivors express a range of perspectives regarding sex offender registries. Support for mandatory registration of child sex offenders is common, but survivors have concerns about victims who may have been manipulated or coerced to commit crimes—as is common in sex trafficking—being inappropriately penalized by registration requirements. Acknowledging that different communities might feel differently about the appropriateness of public access to sex offender registries, survivors note that non-public government-to-government information sharing can be vital to protecting children, particularly in the context of extraterritorial child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Most offenders [who sexually abuse children] will never end up on a registry as it is extremely rare that these individuals are held accountable for sexual offenses. An individual who does end up on such a registry has done something very wrong indeed.

- Survivor

What drives opposing viewpoints?

Opponents of sex offender registries raise several concerns. Objections include research suggesting that registries do not significantly reduce recidivism; secondary social effects that create obstacles—difficulty obtaining employment and housing, for example—for offenders trying to rehabilitate and reintegrate into society; stigmatization and associated social isolation; diversion of resources from other problems to administer registration programs; due process and human rights concerns; and overly broad application.