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Abstract: 

In an effort to protect public safety, over the past 25 years, convicted sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences have been subject to increasingly complex notification and registration requirements upon their release back into society. Whether these requirements are constitutional for an offender or not, under ex post facto prohibitions, has been at issue since their inception. In two parts, the article below examines the history of SORN laws, including the role branches of the federal government have played in shaping them. Part I, in this issue, illustrates how SORN laws have evolved since New Jersey’s first Megan’s Law and the trend in upholding them again ex post facto arguments. Part II will examine problems in some onerous state SORN policies and the effectiveness of such provisions.

Keywords: National Offender Registry Database; Jacob Wetterling Acts; Kansas v. Hendricks; Smith v. Doe; United States v. Kebodeaux

Affiliations:  1: University of Kansas.