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103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 515

To require State agencies to register all offenders convicted of any acts

involving child abuse with the National Crime Information Center of

the Department of Justice.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 21, 1993

Mr. HOBSON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To require State agencies to register all offenders convicted

of any acts involving child abuse with the National Crime

Information Center of the Department of Justice.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Child Abuser

5 Registration Act of 1993’’.

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

7 For the purposes of this Act—
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1 (1) the term ‘‘child’’ means a person who is a

2 child for the purposes of the criminal child abuse

3 law of a State;

4 (2) the term ‘‘child abuse’’ means the physical,

5 psychological, or emotional injuring, sexual abuse or

6 exploitation, neglectful treatment, or maltreatment

7 of a child by any person in violation of the criminal

8 child abuse law of a State;

9 (3) the term ‘‘child abuser information’’ means

10 the following facts concerning a person who has vio11 lated the criminal child abuse laws of a State:

12 (A) name, social security number, age,

13 race, sex, date of birth, height, weight, hair and

14 eye color, address of legal residence, and a brief

15 description of the crime or crimes committed by

16 the offender; and

17 (B) any other information that the Federal

18 Bureau of Investigation or the National Crime

19 Information Center determines may be useful in

20 identifying child abusers;

21 (4) the term ‘‘criminal child abuse law of a

22 State’’ means the law of a State that establishes

23 criminal penalties for the commission of child abuse

24 by a parent or other family member of a child or by

25 any other person;
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1 (5) the term ‘‘National Crime Information Cen2 ter’’ means the division of the Federal Bureau of In3 vestigation that serves as a computerized informa4 tion source on wanted criminals, persons named in

5 arrest warrants, runaways, missing children, and

6 stolen property for use by Federal, State, and local

7 law enforcement authorities; and

8 (6) the term ‘‘State’’ means each of the States,

9 the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of

10 Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands,

11 Guam, and the Trust Territories of the Pacific.

12 SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

13 The Congress finds that—

14 (1) disturbing increases have occurred in recent

15 years in the number of children who are abused by

16 persons who have previously committed crimes of

17 child abuse;

18 (2) many children who run away from home,

19 who fall prey to pornography and prostitution, who

20 suffer from a dependency on alcohol and drugs, and

21 who become juvenile offenders, have been victims of

22 child abuse;

23 (3) research has shown that child abuse tends

24 to repeat itself, and many parents who abuse their

25 children were once victims themselves;
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1 (4) in recognition of the increased cases of child

2 abuse, several States have established agencies to re3 ceive and maintain data relating to cases of child

4 abuse;

5 (5) currently there exists no centralized na6 tional source through which a law enforcement agen7 cy can obtain data relating to persons who have

8 committed crimes of child abuse;

9 (6) partly because of the lack of available and

10 accurate information at the national level, persons

11 who have committed acts of child abuse in one State

12 have been able to go to another State to commit the

13 crime again, in many cases in a position of authority

14 over children; and

15 (7) the Nation cannot afford to ignore the im16 portance of preventing child abuse.

17 SEC. 4. PURPOSES.

18 The purposes of this Act are—

19 (1) to establish a national system through

20 which current, accurate information concerning per21 sons who commit crimes of child abuse can be ob22 tained from a centralized source;

23 (2) to assist in the prevention of second inci24 dents of child abuse by providing information about

25 persons who have been convicted of a crime of child
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1 abuse to organizations whose primary concern is

2 that of child welfare and care; and

3 (3) to understand the problem of child abuse in

4 the United States by providing statistical and infor5 mational data to the Department of Justice, the Na6 tional Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Con7 gress, and other interested parties.

8 SEC. 5. REPORTING BY THE STATES.

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—A State which reports the convic10 tions of named individuals to the Federal Bureau of Inves11 tigation shall include all convictions for child abuse as de12 fined under this Act.

13 (b) GUIDELINES.—The Attorney General shall estab14 lish guidelines for the reporting of child abuser informa15 tion, including procedures for carrying out the purposes

16 of this Act.

17 (c) ANNUAL SUMMARY.—The Attorney General shall

18 publish an annual statistical summary of the child abuser

19 information reported under this Act.

20 SEC. 6. STATE COMPLIANCE.

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Each State shall have 3 years

22 from the date of the enactment of this section in which

23 to implement the provisions of section 5.

24 (b) INELIGIBILITY FOR FUNDS.—The allocations of

25 funds under section 506 of title I of the Omnibus Crime
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1 Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3756)

2 received by a State not complying with the provisions of

3 section 5, 3 years after the date of the enactment of this

4 Act shall be reduced by 25 percent and the unallocated

5 funds shall be reallocated to the States in compliance with

6 this section.

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