01 / Did you know
Juvenile
A 14-year-old can end up on a lifetime federal registry tier.
Federal law doesn't wait for adulthood. Under SORNA, a juvenile who was 14 or older at the time of the offense and was adjudicated delinquent of an offense equivalent to aggravated sexual abuse — generally meaning forcible penetration — is classified as a Tier III offender, the same category reserved for the most serious adult convictions. That comes with lifetime registration and in-person verification requirements, though a juvenile in this tier can petition to reduce the term to 25 years after maintaining a clean record. States are free to register juveniles more broadly than the federal floor requires.
02 / Surprising difference
Public Access
Being on a "lifetime" registry doesn't always mean the public can see you.
This surprises people paired with card 01: registration and public disclosure are two separate questions. Federal guidelines specifically give jurisdictions discretion over whether to post juvenile registrants on the public-facing registry website at all. A state can require lifetime registration with law enforcement while keeping that record off the searchable public map entirely — and if a state doesn't require public posting for a given offender type, that person also won't appear on the national registry site.
03 / The big one
Lifetime
Seventeen states require lifetime registration, full stop — regardless of the offense.
Most states scale registration length to offense severity. Seventeen don't: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming require every registrant to stay registered for life, though most allow a petition for release after a set number of years. In the other states, lower-tier offenses carry a defined end date — sometimes as short as 10 years.
04 / Did you know
Repealed
California required lifetime registration for everyone — until 2017.
California used to be one of only four states requiring lifetime registration regardless of offense. That changed with SB 384, signed in 2017, which moved most registrants onto a three-tier system: the lowest tier (covering offenses like misdemeanor indecent exposure) can petition for removal after 10 years, rather than never. The law didn't erase the registry — it restructured who has to stay on it, and for how long, going forward.
"Same underlying conduct, different age on either side of it — and the registration term isn't close."
Card 05 — Missouri's Romeo & Juliet split
05 / Surprising difference
Same Offense
Two people convicted under the same general offense can face wildly different registration terms.
Missouri illustrates this well. Someone under 21 convicted of consensual sex with a partner older than 14 can petition for removal from the registry after just two years under the state's "Romeo and Juliet" exception. Someone 21 or older convicted of sex with a 16-year-old — a related but distinct scenario — can only petition after 10 years. The label "sex offender registration" covers an enormous range of underlying facts, and the fine print of age and specific statute matters more than the general category.
06 / Did you know
Interstate
Moving to another state doesn't reset — or end — your registration obligation.
Registrants are generally expected to register in the state where they were convicted and any state where they live, work, or attend school. Some states go further: Wyoming's registration duration runs from 10 years to life, and a person can remain on Wyoming's public registry even after they've physically left the state. Crossing a state line is a well-known trigger for new registration duties — it's rarely a way to start over.
"Tier II" doesn't mean the same thing in every state.
Under the federal framework, Tier I carries a 10-year registration term, Tier II is 25 years, and Tier III is lifetime — with in-person check-ins every 3, 6, or 12 months depending on tier. But states implement tiering differently: Georgia's tier only determines registration length, while its public-notification rules run on a separate track. Arizona, Massachusetts, and New Jersey skip offense-based tiers altogether in favor of individualized risk assessments. A "Tier II" registrant in one state can face a materially different set of obligations than a "Tier II" registrant in another.
08 / Did you know
Petition
Getting off the registry is possible — but the door is narrower than most people assume.
Under federal law, a Tier I offender can petition to shorten registration from 15 years to 10, provided they've kept a clean record for a decade and completed supervision and treatment. Tier III juveniles can petition to reduce a lifetime term to 25 years. States layer their own rules on top: many allow petitions for removal or reduction, but some restrict that relief to low-level offenses or to people who were registered as juveniles — meaning eligibility depends heavily on exactly what you were convicted of and when.
09 / The big one
Ex Post Facto
A law passed after your conviction can still apply to you — the Supreme Court settled that in 2003.
The U.S. Constitution bars retroactive punishment. So why can a state pass a registration law today and apply it to someone convicted decades ago? In Smith v. Doe, the Supreme Court held that Alaska's registration act was a civil, regulatory scheme rather than punishment — so applying it retroactively didn't violate the Ex Post Facto Clause. That reasoning has held up in most courts since, but not all: New Hampshire's Supreme Court found that lifetime registration without any opportunity for review violated its own state constitution, and Kansas courts went back and forth on the question before settling in favor of the state. Whether registration counts as "punishment" still isn't a fully closed question everywhere.
10 / Did you know
Residency
Federal law says nothing about where a registrant can live. The restrictions are entirely local.
SORNA sets minimum standards for registration itself, but it doesn't limit where registrants may live, work, or spend time — that's left entirely to states, tribes, and municipalities, and many have filled the gap. Typical restrictions bar registrants from living within 1,000–2,500 feet of a school, park, playground, or daycare. Coverage is uneven: roughly ten states have no statewide residency restriction at all, while most states enforce some version of a distance rule either statewide or through local ordinances — meaning where a registrant is legally allowed to live can change significantly just by crossing a city line, not only a state one.
"The registration itself is one obligation. Missing an update is a separate federal crime — with its own decade-long ceiling."
Card 11 — Failure to register
11 / Did you know
Enforcement
Missing a registration update can carry a steeper federal penalty than people expect.
Under 18 U.S.C. §2250, knowingly failing to register or update a registration is itself a separate federal crime — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — if the person also traveled across state or international lines, or into or out of tribal land, while out of compliance. If the person commits a violent federal crime while unregistered, the penalty rises to a mandatory minimum of 5 years and up to 30. Most states also carry their own parallel failure-to-register statute, so a missed address update can trigger prosecution at the state level, the federal level, or both, independent of whatever the original underlying offense was.
12 / Did you know
International
Leaving the country used to be a way around the registry. Congress closed that gap in 2016.
In Nichols v. United States, the Supreme Court found that SORNA's registration requirements, as written at the time, didn't apply once a registrant relocated abroad — there was no update obligation once someone left U.S. jurisdiction. Congress responded with the International Megan's Law, which amended SORNA to require registrants to notify authorities of international travel plans in advance, closing the gap the Court had identified. It's a clear example of how a single court ruling on the letter of the law can trigger a direct legislative patch within a few years.
13 / Did you know
Online ID
Some states require registrants to hand over every email address and social media username they use.
Utah was the first state to require this: registrants must give the sex offender registry all of their "internet identifiers" — email addresses, chat handles, social media usernames — and update it as those change. A registrant challenged the requirement on First Amendment grounds in Doe v. Shurtleff, arguing it abridged his right to speak anonymously online; the requirement survived. A number of states now require this reporting, and in a handful of jurisdictions those identifiers are published directly on the public registry website, searchable by username rather than just by name. Other states, like Nebraska, have had broader internet-restriction laws struck down entirely on First Amendment and due-process grounds — so "must report online identifiers" and "internet activity is restricted" are two different things that don't always travel together.
14 / Surprising difference
Marked ID
In several states, a registrant's own driver's license flags them as a sex offender.
A number of states require a registrant's state-issued ID to carry a marking — some use a small symbol that only means something to law enforcement scanning the card, others print words like "SEXUAL PREDATOR" directly on the front, as Florida does. Florida lawmakers have gone further, debating whether to print that designation in red. The approach isn't uniform, and it isn't always upheld: courts have struck down similar driver's license labeling requirements in Alabama and Louisiana on First Amendment grounds, and Alabama replaced its printed text with a coded letter designation after that ruling.
"Registering isn't free — and in some states, the bill comes back every three months for as long as the requirement lasts."
Card 15 — Registration fees
Registration can carry a recurring bill — and DNA collection — on top of everything else.
Several states charge registrants directly for the administrative cost of being on the registry. Alabama, for example, allows up to a $125 state fee plus an additional county fee of up to 25% for initial registration, along with a recurring $10 quarterly fee and mandatory DNA submission. Wyoming follows a similar structure, combining a state fee with a county surcharge. Some jurisdictions also charge a fee every time a registrant reports a change — meaning moving, changing jobs, or updating an online identifier can come with its own cost, on a schedule that runs as long as the registration requirement does.
16 / The big one
Civil Commitment
In some states, confinement can continue after a prison sentence is fully served — under an entirely different legal label.
This is separate from, and in addition to, the registry itself. Twenty states plus the federal government have "civil commitment" laws that allow the indefinite, involuntary confinement of someone found to be a "sexually violent predator" — not as punishment for their original crime, but as a civil, treatment-oriented measure tied to a finding of mental abnormality and continued danger. The Supreme Court upheld this framework in Kansas v. Hendricks, reasoning that because commitment turns on a current mental-health and risk finding rather than the original offense, it isn't additional punishment and doesn't violate double jeopardy or ex post facto protections. A person can complete a determinate prison sentence in full and still not go home.
"A conviction record from another state, or another country, doesn't stay behind when you cross the border."
Card 17 — Out-of-state and foreign convictions
17 / Did you know
Out-of-State
A conviction from another state — or another country — can still put you on the registry here.
Federal regulation requires that someone convicted of a qualifying offense in a foreign country register within three business days of entering any U.S. jurisdiction to live, work, or attend school. Out-of-state convictions work similarly but with more variation: California, for example, requires registration for an out-of-state conviction if the person would have had to register while living in the convicting state, unless the offense falls into a narrow list of exceptions involving conduct between consenting adults. Because each state independently decides whether an outside offense counts as "registerable" under its own law, the same underlying conviction can trigger registration in one new state and not another.
18 / Did you know
Transient
Having no fixed address doesn't remove the registration duty — it just changes how often you have to show up in person.
Federal guidelines require jurisdictions to register homeless and transient offenders, not exempt them — an offender without a fixed address must give "some more or less specific description" of where they habitually stay, and someone without a fixed workplace may have to register their normal travel routes instead. In practice this usually means far more frequent check-ins: several states require transient registrants to report in person every 30 to 90 days, compared to an annual update for someone with a permanent address. Missing that shortened window — even briefly, while genuinely homeless — is treated the same as any other registration violation.
19 / The big one
No Trial
You don't need a trial, or a prison sentence, to end up on a registry.
Under SORNA, "conviction" is defined broadly enough to sweep in outcomes well short of a courtroom trial: it includes a finding of guilt, but also a withheld adjudication, a deferred judgment, or a plea of nolo contendere (no contest). Registration is tied to the offense of conviction rather than the sentence actually handed down — so an offender who received probation, a suspended sentence, or a diversion program with no active incarceration at all can still carry the same registration obligation as someone who served years in prison for a similar offense.
"In several states, Halloween isn't just a holiday registrants sit out — it's a scheduled compliance check."
Card 20 — Halloween-specific rules
20 / Unusual state law
Halloween
Several states run scheduled Halloween-night checks on registrants — and one court just struck down part of how.
California's "Operation Boo" sends parole agents to confirm registrants under supervision are home with the lights off; New York runs a similar program called "Zero Tolerance." Missouri went further, requiring registrants to post a sign reading "No candy or treats at this residence." In early 2026, the Eighth Circuit struck that specific sign requirement down in Sanderson v. Hanaway as unconstitutional compelled speech — while leaving the rest of the law's curfew, lights-off, and no-contact rules in place. Coverage is also patchwork below the state level: in Texas, only individual cities can pass Halloween restrictions on registrants, and as of mid-2026 fewer than one in ten Texas municipalities had actually done so.
21 / Surprising difference
Name Change
A few states won't let a registrant legally change their name at all.
Wisconsin, Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama bar registered offenders from petitioning for a name change outright in most circumstances. Other states allow it, but with guardrails: Connecticut requires advance written notice to the state's public safety commissioner, disclosure of the proposed new name, and a sworn statement that the change isn't meant to dodge registration duties — and gives the state standing to challenge the petition in court. South Carolina permits the change but requires the court clerk to report it directly to the registry. At the other end, Oregon has no name-change restriction specific to registrants at all — only a requirement to report the new name within 10 days, the same as any other registry update.
22 / Did you know
Off-Limits
For some registrants, the public library — or their own church — is legally off-limits.
Iowa bans anyone convicted of a sex offense against a minor from being on public library property, or loitering within 300 feet of it, without the library administrator's written permission. Tennessee lets a library's governing board impose a similar ban through formal mailed notice, enforceable as criminal trespass. North Carolina's premises-restriction law has generated years of litigation over whether it effectively closes off libraries and churches entirely — one county sheriff sent letters barring every registrant in the county from attending church under a 300-foot rule, and a related federal lawsuit in Georgia challenged a ban on registrants volunteering at houses of worship. Courts have reached different conclusions on how far these restrictions can go, so "off-limits" varies by jurisdiction and sometimes by county.
23 / Did you know
Verification
"Annual registration" doesn't mean you can ignore the registry for the rest of the year.
A scheduled annual verification is only one type of registration duty. Under the federal SORNA framework, certain changes — including name, residence, employment, or student status — trigger separate update requirements. State laws can impose additional deadlines and reporting duties.
24 / Interstate surprise
Two States
You can have registration obligations in more than one jurisdiction.
Under SORNA, a registrant must register and keep the registration current in each jurisdiction where the person resides, works, or attends school. That means crossing a state line for employment or school can create a registration issue even when the person's home remains somewhere else.
25 / The terminology trap
Risk Level
A state's "risk level" and its registration tier aren't necessarily the same thing.
SORNA uses federal Tier I, II, and III classifications based largely on the offense and other statutory factors. States can use different classification systems, including offense-based tiers or individualized risk assessments. A label such as Level 1 therefore cannot automatically be assumed to mean the same thing from one state to another.
26 / Removal isn't always automatic
Relief
Being eligible to seek removal isn't necessarily the same as being removed.
Some states provide a petition or court process through which an eligible registrant can seek termination or reduction of registration. Eligibility may depend on the offense, time elapsed, compliance, criminal history, or other statutory conditions. Other states provide different mechanisms — or no general petition process at all.
27 / Small distance, big consequence
Local Law
A statewide residency rule may not tell the whole story.
Where residency restrictions exist, the rules can come from state statutes, local ordinances, or both. The exact effect therefore depends on the jurisdiction and the type of restriction involved. A person researching housing should check the applicable state and local rules rather than assuming one statewide rule answers every question.
28 / Behind the registry
DNA
A registry record can contain far more than a name and address.
The federal SORNA framework calls for registry information including a photograph, fingerprints, palm prints, and a DNA sample, along with identifying and offense information. Not all of that information is necessarily displayed publicly. Government collection and public disclosure are different questions.
29 / The registry isn't the sentence
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has treated at least some registration systems as civil regulatory schemes.
In Smith v. Doe, the Supreme Court considered Alaska's registration and notification law and held that the law, as designed by Alaska, was a nonpunitive civil regulatory scheme for purposes of the Ex Post Facto Clause. That decision involved Alaska's particular statutory system; it does not mean every legal question about every registry in every state is identical.
30 / Age matters
Juvenile
Federal law can treat some juvenile adjudications as qualifying convictions for registration.
Under SORNA, a juvenile adjudication can count for federal registration purposes when the person was 14 or older at the time of the offense and the offense was comparable to aggravated sexual abuse, or was an attempt or conspiracy to commit such an offense. States may have their own juvenile-registration rules as well.
31 / Crossing the state line
Work / School
You don't have to move to another state to create a registration issue there.
SORNA requires registration in each jurisdiction where a registrant resides, works, or attends school. So someone can keep a home in one state while working or attending school in another and potentially have registration duties in both jurisdictions.
32 / Yes, volunteering can matter
Florida Example
Some laws reach unpaid work and volunteer positions.
Florida law, for example, requires certain state and local government entities to check the registry before appointing or employing someone — including a volunteer — to work at parks, playgrounds, day-care centers, or other places where children regularly congregate. Other jurisdictions have their own rules governing volunteer activity.
33 / Paperwork matters
Deadlines
A change of address can trigger a deadline that has nothing to do with annual registration.
Under SORNA, certain changes — including name, residence, employment, or student status — must be reported within 3 business days. State laws can impose different or additional requirements, so the federal deadline should not be treated as a universal state-law deadline.
34 / Public information
Privacy
The government can collect information that isn't necessarily displayed publicly.
SORNA requires jurisdictions to maintain information such as fingerprints, palm prints, DNA, and a current photograph. Public-access rules are a separate part of the system. What law enforcement collects and what the public can see are therefore not automatically the same thing.
35 / A common misconception
Federal Floor
SORNA is a federal framework — but state registration systems don't all look alike.
SORNA establishes federal registration standards, including federal definitions, registration periods, and information requirements. States and other jurisdictions can have systems that differ in important ways. That's why knowing the federal framework alone doesn't answer what a particular person must do in a particular state.
36 / The clock question
Duration
"15 years" or "life" doesn't answer every question about when registration ends.
Federal law establishes different registration periods based on SORNA's tier classifications, and it also provides limited reduction rules for qualifying offenders who maintain a clean record. State systems can use different durations and different starting points or relief procedures. The number alone isn't the whole analysis.
37 / Employment
State Law
Registration status does not create one nationwide employment rule.
Employment restrictions are largely jurisdiction-specific. Some states impose statutory restrictions on particular jobs, locations, or contact with children, while other employment decisions may be governed primarily by the employer's own policies. The important question is whether a specific law actually prohibits the work.
Reporting an online identifier isn't the same thing as an internet ban.
Registration systems can require disclosure of email addresses, internet identifiers, or other communication information. That is different from a law that restricts or prohibits particular online activity. Reporting, public disclosure, and restriction are separate legal questions.
39 / Different State
Interstate
Getting relief under one state's law doesn't automatically answer another state's question.
Registration obligations are determined by the laws of the jurisdictions involved. A person who receives relief from registration in one jurisdiction may still need to determine whether another jurisdiction independently requires registration based on the conviction, residence, employment, school attendance, or another statutory connection.
40 / Temporary housing
Transient
"I don't have a permanent address" doesn't necessarily end the registration question.
SORNA defines residence as a person's home or other place where the person habitually lives, while federal regulations address temporary lodging and situations where no conventional residence exists. States can also have specific transient-registration rules. California, for example, has detailed rules addressing transient registrants and temporary lodging.
41 / Public information
Photograph
A registry photograph is part of the registration system itself.
SORNA requires the registering jurisdiction to include a current photograph in the registry record. The law separately identifies other information — including fingerprints and DNA — that must also be included. Exactly what the public can see depends on the applicable public-access rules.
42 / International
21 Days
International travel can require advance notice before you ever reach the airport.
Federal law requires covered registered sex offenders to provide information concerning intended travel outside the United States. Federal authorities have enforced the requirement against people who failed to provide the required advance notice. DOJ has described the federal requirement as 21 days before international travel.
43 / Courtroom difference
Jurisdiction
Similar conduct can produce different registration results in different jurisdictions.
Registration consequences depend on the actual offense of conviction and the law of the jurisdiction applying its registration system. Differences in offense definitions, classifications, juvenile rules, duration, and interstate provisions can therefore produce different results from cases that sound similar when described in ordinary language.
44 / The address problem
Residence
"Where do you live?" can be a surprisingly complicated legal question.
Federal law defines "resides" as the location of a person's home or other place where the person habitually lives. Federal regulations also address situations involving temporary lodging and people without a conventional residence address. States may add their own rules for transient or temporary living arrangements.
45 / The clean-record question
Relief
A clean record can matter when a law provides a path toward reduced registration.
SORNA provides a limited reduction mechanism for qualifying Tier I offenders who maintain a clean record for the required period and meet the other statutory conditions. State laws can create different relief systems. So "I've stayed out of trouble" can be legally important — but it does not automatically mean registration ends.
46 / Location matters
Residency
Where you live can matter even when the restriction isn't written as a distance number.
Residency laws can use different approaches: some focus on distance from protected locations, while others regulate particular places or categories of housing. That means "Is there a 1,000-foot rule?" isn't always the right first question. The better question is what exactly does this jurisdiction prohibit?
47 / The big picture
50 Systems
There isn't one single set of registration rules for the entire United States.
There is a federal SORNA framework, but registration obligations are implemented through individual jurisdictions and can differ substantially. The same basic question can therefore have different answers depending on the state, the offense, the date, the person's classification, and where the person lives, works, or attends school.
48 / The big one
Free Speech
States can't just ban registrants from Facebook — the Supreme Court called the internet "the modern public square."
North Carolina once made it a felony for any registered offender to access a commercial social networking site that allowed minors as members — broad enough to cover Facebook, LinkedIn, even Amazon or WebMD by some readings. In Packingham v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court struck it down unanimously, ruling that cutting registrants off from mainstream online life goes too far under the First Amendment, regardless of whether any actual contact with a minor occurred. States can still narrowly restrict conduct that precedes abuse — contacting a minor, for instance — but a blanket ban on ordinary internet use doesn't survive.
49 / Did you know
Disclosure
Treatment programs can require you to confess to offenses you were never charged with.
A Kansas prison treatment program required participants to disclose their full sexual history — including uncharged offenses — with no immunity offered for what they revealed. An inmate refused, arguing it violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination; the consequences for refusing included losing privileges and being moved to a higher-security unit. In McKune v. Lile, the Supreme Court held those consequences, while real, weren't severe enough to count as unconstitutional compulsion — meaning treatment programs can generally require this kind of disclosure, in prison and often as a condition of probation or parole.