Spatial Justice: 1999 State Justice Statistics Program for Statistical Analysis Centers
| Principal investigator: |
Robert H. Langworthy |
| Other project personnel: |
Richard Curtis Lt. David Hudson (Alaska State Troopers) |
| Project dates: |
Oct 1, 1999-Mar 31, 2001 |
| JC#: |
0011 |
| Agency: |
Bureau of Justice Statistics |
| Project amount: |
$34,306 |
| Project status: |
Completed |
| See also: | |
| > Sex offenses |
In Alaska and 44 other U.S. states, community notification laws granting various degrees of public access to sex offender registries have been enacted. The first such law was enacted in New Jersey in 1994 and is popularly known as "Megan's Law" after a seven-year-old girl raped and murdered by a neighbor who, unknown to Megan's parents, was a registered sex offender.
The federal government has strongly endorsed the development of both the registration of sex offenders and the move towards community notification. In 1994, Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which encouraged the development of state registries, and in 1996 Congress also passed a federal version of "Megan's Law" urging states to adopt community notification legislation. In 1996, President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno committed the U.S. Department of Justice to develop the National Sex Offender Registry, seeking to link the states' individual registries. Subsequently, 42 U.S.C. 14072 was amended to require that states maintain their sex-offender registries, and 42 U.S.C. 14071 was amended to make full Byrne grant funding conditional upon participation in the Federal Sex Offender Registry.
In Alaska, the 1994 Alaska Legislature granted the public access to a portion of the state's sex offender registry upon its creation, finding that: "(1) sex offenders pose a high risk of reoffending after release from custody, (2) protecting the public from sex offenders is a primary governmental interest, (3) the privacy interests of persons convicted of sex offenses are less important than the government's interest in public safety, and (4) release of certain information about sex offenders to public agencies and the general public will assist in protecting the public safety." The Alaska Department of Public Safety maintains the Alaska Sex Offender Registry as mandated by AS 12.63.010, and under AS 18.65.087 makes the following information from the registry available: Offender's name(s); residence address; photograph; place of employment; date of birth; crime for which convicted; conviction date; court of conviction; and length of sentence. The Alaska Sex Offender Registry became accessible on the Internet in June 1998.
Under this project, the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Unit will assist the Alaska State Troopers by: (1) assisting AST in its ongoing efforts to improve the accuracy of the registration data; (2) geocoding locational data of registrants (work and residence); and (3) conducting a study of the spatial distribution of registrants to check for spatial concentrations.
Products
Curtis, Richard W.; Godwin, Maurice; Langworthy, Robert H.; and Schafer, N. E. (2001). Mapping Sex Offender Addresses: The Utility of the Alaska Sex Offender Registry as a Research Data Base. Report prepared under Grant No. 1999-RU-RX-K006 from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Anchorage, AK: Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center, Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage.