Purpose
We reviewed the Department’s efforts to implement SORNA requirements and assessed whether those efforts have increased the number of fugitive sex offenders investigated, arrested, and prosecuted by the Department.
Scope
We reviewed law enforcement (NSOR) and publicly available (NSOPR) sex offender registration data from January through March 2008. Our review also examined data on fugitive sex offender investigations, arrests, and prosecutions from FY 2004 through FY 2007. In addition, we reviewed the implementation of SORNA by Department components and the Department’s efforts to assist state, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions with SORNA implementation. However, we did not review the jurisdictions’ efforts to implement SORNA.
Methodology
To examine the implementation of SORNA, we conducted interviews and performed both document reviews and analyses of investigation, arrest, and prosecution data provided by Department components and other sources listed below.
Interviews
- Office of the Deputy Attorney General;
- Office of Legal Policy;
- SMART Office;
- Bureau of Justice Assistance;
- Executive Office for United States Attorneys;
- Criminal Division;
- FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division;
- FBI Headquarters;
- USMS Headquarters; and
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Document Reviews
- Department policies on sex offender registration and notification;
- Department policies on arrest and prosecution of fugitive sex offenders;
- Annual reports to Congress on the USMS’s assistance to jurisdictions in arresting fugitive sex offenders and the federal prosecution and punishment of sex offenders who fail to comply with registration requirements; and
- Component policies on identifying, arresting, and prosecuting fugitive sex offenders.
Data Analyses
- OJP Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry Website;
- FBI National Sex Offender Registry;
- FBI Integrated Statistical Reporting and Analysis Application;
- USMS Justice Detainee Information System;
- Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA) Legal Information Office Network System; and
- NCMEC estimates and reports.