1 - Origins and Evolution

Summary

Chapter 1 recounts the historical evolution of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws in the US. Registration laws originated in the 1930s, first in municipalities in the Los Angeles area, and later several states, typically targeting individuals with criminal convictions more generally. Over time, interest in registration flagged, but experienced a major resurgence in the early 1990s, when states, acting in the wake of high-profile sexual victimizations of children, quickly enacted new laws, this time targeting convicted sex offenders in particular. The new-era laws were not only more expansive and onerous than their antecedents, they differed in a critically important respect: For the first time, the information they contained concerning individuals was made publicly available, in the name of community self-protection. SORN laws have since continued to expand, in significant part due to pressure from the federal government, and today are in effect nationwide affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals.