The Forensic Nurse

The Adam Walsh Child Protection Act, or  was signed into law in 2006. At the time it was passed into law, over 100,000 of the half million sex offenders in the United States were “missing” and unregistered as required by law. Since law enforcement did not know where they were and could not warn communities about the dangers that may be lurking. One of the main purposes of the legislation was to make it a felony for sex offenders who fail to register or update their current whereabouts information.

This information forms the basis of the National Sex Offender Registry.  It further attempts to direct each state to conform to identical criteria for posting offender data on the Internet. The failure to provide data uniformly at the state level made it a problem for citizens and law enforcement to accurately share and find information quickly.

Another important part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act was that the legislation organizes sex offenders into three tiers, and mandates that Tier 3 offenders (the most serious tier) update their whereabouts every three months with lifetime registration requirements, Tier 2 offenders update their whereabouts every six months with 25 years of registration and Tier 1 offenders update their whereabouts every year with 15 years of registration .

Adam Walsh was found murdered 16 days after his abduction, and the perpetrator of the crime has yet to be found. His Father John Walsh, is most famous for hosting the show America’s Most Wanted.  A show dedicated to getting information out into the public about outstanding criminals who are still on the run from law enforcement.

Addtional information links:

• Registration Requirements for Juvenile Sex Offenders 
• http://sexcrimes.typepad.com/sex_crimes/adam-walsh-act.html