A recent 2022 global survey highlights the rapid proliferation of sex offense registration laws world-wide since the United States enacted a national sex offense registration system in 1994. The survey, prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (“SMART Office”) of the Department of Justice and entitled “Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws around the World,” spans 214 pages and collects legislative and regulatory language from 90 countries regarding sex offense registration and notification systems. According to the report, 41 countries currently have sex offender notification systems or something comparable. An appendix lists an additional 42 countries that have had “notable movement” regarding sex offense registration laws, e.g. proposed legislation or attempts to pass relevant bills.
The DOJ’s SMART Office previously produced global sex offense registry surveys in 2014 and 2016. The SMART Office’s 2016 survey, noted that at the time of its publication, 29 countries had followed the United States in enacting sex offense registration laws while the SMART Office’s 2014 survey identified only 18 countries that had enacted such laws.