This report is a collection of legislative and regulatory language from about 90 countries that pertains to each country’s sex offender registration and notification system.
This was a collaborative effort between the Library of Congress’ Federal Research Division (FRD), the Law Library of Congress, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). Completed in two phases, project researchers conducted an initial global search pf a wide range of source material, such as news reports, monitoring agency publications, grass-roots organization webpages, and reports by ECPAT (End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism) International, the European Union, and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, for mentions of sex offender registries or related discussions and events. Once researchers ascertained the existence of registry-related laws or regulations within jurisdictions, further research was conducted to locate the relevant statutory material for this report. In phase I, researchers conducted a broad review to establish whether countries have considered laws/regulations establishing sex offender registries (SORs). In phase II, researchers conducted searches for legislative and regulatory language for each country found to have an existing SOR in phase I. This involved conducting web searches to access primary and secondary source information, which generally involved researching government webpages of judicial/justice sector ministries and parliaments to obtain primary source material. Researchers, where possible, included direct statutory language and provided original statutory organization. At times, it was not feasible for researchers to pull direct language (such as when the language in question was too long, included too many references to additional sections, or was organized in a way that did not facilitate a copied transfer). In those cases, researchers paraphrased. Many jurisdictions had available government-provided primary sources in English; however, at other times, jurisdictions’ statutory language had to be translated to English by researchers or procured through a secondary translated source.