How States Aim to Stop Sex Offenders: Key Legislation

• 1994: Jacob Wetterling Act (Federal)
  Required states to track sex offenders annually for 10 years after their release or, if an offender’s crime was deemed violent, each quarter for the rest of his life. (Act was amended and expanded in 1997.)
  Jacob Wetterling was 11 in 1989 when he was kidnapped by a masked gunman in Minnesota; he was never found. An area man who died at home years later was found to have incriminating evidence that linked him to the case.

• 1994: “Three-Strikes Law”(California; at least 20 other states adopted some form of this law)
  It required offenders to receive a mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison without parole for a third criminal conviction, regardless of the crime. Though most “three-strikers” were convicted of non-violent drug offenses, efforts to amend the law were defeated in 2004. Analysis issued by the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research found that the law encourages criminals to be more violent.
  California’s law followed the abduction and murder of Polly Klass, 12, who was abducted and murdered by a man who had committed other violent crimes.
   
• 1996: Pam Lychner Sex Offender Tracking and Identification Act (Federal)
  This act established a national sex offender registry and required jurisdictions to share information when an offender moved to another state. (State challenges to those notification requirements were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.)
  An adult, Pam Lychner of Houston was assaulted in 1993 by a convicted rapist and child molester who was working on a home she owned. The national registry was also inspired by the death of Amber Hagerman (see 2003 legislation, below).
   
• 1996: Megan’s Law (Federal)
  Required information on state sex offender registries to be made public. There are currently about 550,000 convicted offenders registered nationwide.
  New Jersey’s Megan Kanka, 7, was raped and murdered by a repeat violent sexual offender who lived across the street in 1994.
   
• 1998: Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act (Federal)
  Created or expanded penalties for the distribution of child pornography, online sexual solicitation and exploitation of children. Directed the FBI to create an investigative center to support investigations of child abductions, mysterious disappearances, child homicides and serial murders.
   
• 2000: Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act (Federal)
  Requires anyone attending or working at a college or university and listed on the state sex offender registry to also notify the institution of their status.
   
• 2003: Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act (Federal)
  Established the federal Amber alert system, a pilot program to run fingerprint checks on child service providers and volunteers working with children, and other programs.
  The alert was named for Amber Hagerman, 9, who was abducted and murdered in Texas in 1996; her murder remains unsolved but a man later linked to other child sexual abuse crimes was suspected. Some states use another child’s name for their alert system.
   
• 2005: Jessica's Law (Florida); Jessica Lunsford Act (federal, not enacted)
  The federal version of a Florida law was introduced in 2005 but never enacted by Congress. The Florida law, which was adopted by some other states, required adults convicted of sexually abusing a child under 12 to serve a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and receive lifetime electronic monitoring.
  Nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford was abducted and murdered by a neighbor in Florida in 2005.
   
• 2006: Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act
  Increased mandatory minimum sentences for sex offenders; expands registry requirements, including the inclusion of some juvenile offenders; created the federal SMART office; and established grants for civil commitment programs.
  Adam Walsh, 6, was abducted and murdered in Florida in 1981.
   

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