One in five sex offenders in California fails to register as required by law and the Golden State is not alone. In Virginia the number is one in four.

What good is a list if the most dangerous predators simply unilaterally opt out of it with little chance of being caught? Using Virginia as an example, the majority of absconders are also “sexually violent” (source: Virginia State Police) so it’s the really bad guys who are slipping through the system.

Something needs to be done. Independent Sources recommends:

• Significantly increase penalties for those who don’t register (jail time and fines).
• Create a national database that encompasses all of the state’s databases and makes it easy to search on anyone who has ever been convicted of felony child molestation.
• Create a reward/bounty hunter system so that the general populace gets a share of the fines levied on those who are caught. Bounty hunters are used to bring in people who skip bail, so why not have a similar system for catching people who don’t register? Failing to register should carry a minimum $10,000 fine and 50% of this can go to the citizen who turned them in. Those offenders who don’t have the money or property to register can get an extra year on to their prison sentence and perhaps the state kicks in a $1,000 to the tipster so they are always assured of getting something.

These steps are all common sense. Any time you want to change a behavior, in this case failing to register, you need to increase both the likelihood of the person getting caught as well as the penalty for doing so. The first is easy, toughen the laws and penalties. For the second part, we suggest giving the tools (and rewards) for private citizens for taking some of the workload off of overworked police forces and case workers. In some states like California, there is already a place on the Megan’s Law website to report individuals who might be in violation of their registration requirements. But this is a largely unknown and unrewarded aspect of the system.

How would it work? Well, if that creep next door or weird guy in the next cubicle makes comments that give you pause, you first look to see if they are on the registry. If they are, you steer clear of them for this isn’t about vigilantism, it’s about enforcing the law. If they are not on the list, they may simply be a creep or weird guy (neither are against the law). But before giving them a pass, you dial into a newly created national database of felonious sexual offenders (registered or not) and look for them. Maybe they are using an alias or something else. But you have a tool to do the search. The threat of that alone might encourage more to register and those that don’t are still more likely to get caught.

If anyone thinks this is too harsh or reactionary (ACLU: Want to weigh in on the side of pedophiles?), and are worried about infringing on the rights of individuals who just happen to have been sexual predators, just read the case of Dean Schwartzmiller. Schwartzmiller is a repeat molester who abused hundreds of boys over the years. He has been in and out of prison and easily manipulated the system intended to track him by simply not registering with authorities. Of course he was helped along the way by defense lawyers intent on keeping him out of jail but that’s another story.

We all have to understand that there is a fundamental flaw in a system that relies on molesters to go down to the police station to let them know they’re in town. But unless, and until, we implement a system of electronic monitoring, it is the best thing we have.

Resources: Polly Klaas Foundation, California Megan’s Law Registry,

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 18th, 2005 at 8:59 am by Insider and is filed under Weekend Edition / Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.