Nevada Sex Offender Laws and Regulations

A swifter and higher access to the sex offender information in the various US states was enabled in response to the public protest to the death of Megan Kanka in New Jersey in the year 1994. Seven year old Megan was raped and brutally murdered by a nearby neighbor, who was later convicted as a sex offender. However, as the laws prohibited public disclosure of the sex offender information, the police department did not release any information on the offender. The resultant public uproar led to the implementation of the Megan’s Law in the various US states including Nevada.

Nevada Sex Offender Classification Levels

The Community Notification Advisory Council of Nevada has designed an assessment scale for the purpose of notification to the public about the sex offenders of the state. The sex offenders in Nevada are classified into four tiers. These are tier 0, tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3.

Tier 0 offenders are those who need to register themselves with the authorities. These offenders are convicted of misdemeanors, crimes against children or gross misdemeanors and are not assessed. Identities of this class of sex offenders and other information are not revealed to the public.

Tier 1 sex offenders are those who are assessed to pose a low risk of recidivism. Information about the low risk offenders are only accessible to authorized people. The various law enforcement agencies, the courts and the prosecutors are entitled to access this information.

Tier 2 refers to moderate risk offenders. A risk assessment of these offenders suggests that they pose as moderate risks to the public. Certain information about this group of offenders is released to the public. The set of information includes offender’s name and alias name (if any), tier level, year(s) of birth (actual and the ones used by the offender), physical description, addresses, employment information, place of conviction, status, recent photograph of the offender, offense for which he or she was convicted of, location of conviction, date of conviction.

Tier 3 offenders are high risk offenders. They are assessed to pose the maximum amount risk of to the public. Various law enforcement agencies, communities, schools, organizations, courts and prosecutors are all notified about the tier 3 offenders.

The Nevada sex offenders can be active, inactive or non-compliant. A convicted sex offender who registers with the authorities and complies with the laws has an active status. On the other hand, any Nevada sex offender who has been deported by INS, incarcerated, hospitalized or has failed to register initially or has moved out of the state has an inactive status. An offender has a non-compliant status if he or she fails to register initially or fails to abide by the rules of the verification of the registration.

Recent statistics (December 2009) reveal that out of a total of 14260 cases, the number of active, inactive, tier 3, tier 2, tier 1 and tier 0 cases are 6385, 7875, 213, 2233, 1883 and 1724 respectively.

Nevada Sex Offenses

For minimizing sex offenses in the state and in order to keep the offenders under surveillance, the sex offenders of Nevada are required to register with the Nevada Department of Public Safety. The crimes that are regarded as sexual offenses that require registration are:

1.    child abuse where the abuse is sexual in nature (NRS 200.508)
2.    administering drug to another person with the motive to commit or assist in a crime of violence ( NRS 200.405)
3.    incest (NRS 201.180)
4.    lewdness with a minor (NRS 201.230)
5.    sexual abuse or sexual molestation and murder of a child below 14 years of age (NRS 200.030)
6.    gross lewdness in public places (NRS 201.210)
7.    promoting pornography of a victim under 18 years of age (NRS 200.710 to NRS 200.730 inclusive)
8.    sexual assault (NRS 200.366)
9.    sexual seduction (NRS 200.368)
10.   sexual penetration of a dead human body (NRS 201.450)
11.   out of state offenses
12.   battery with an inclination to assault the victim sexually

To learn about juvenile sex offenders in Nevada visit the webpage http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Nrs/NRS-062http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/F.html#NRS062FSec200.

Nevada Sex Offender Registry

In a bid to reduce sex crimes in the state and to prevent the existing offenders from repeating their crimes, the state has designed a number of programs, the Sex Offender Registry being the most important among them. It is the duty of the sex offenders to register with the local law enforcement agencies and also keep the registration current by reporting annually as per the rules. The offender must make the initial registration with the law enforcement agency which has the jurisdiction of the area where he or she was convicted.

The offender is required to register within 48 hours of arriving in the state. The offender must also notify the agency within 48 hours of release or changing his or her location. A Nevada sexual offender must register for lifetime but may also apply to the district court after 10 to 15 years requesting an order to exempt him from registering any further. All offenders must verify their registrations annually while sexually violent predators are required to verify every 90 days. The laws regarding registration can be read in detail by visiting http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-179http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/D.html#NRS179DSec150.

The Nevada Sex Offender Registry allows the public to access information on sex offenders. With information like the first and the last name, the address, social security number, street name only or the street name and also the street type, and the zip code, you may extract information from the registry. Visit the following link to perform an online search of the sex offenders: http://www.nvsexoffenders.gov/Search.aspx.

For registration information visit: http://www.nvsexoffenders.gov/registrationinfo.aspx. Here you will obtain the law enforcement information and the contact information of the different counties of the state pf Nevada. You may also mail the Nevada Criminal History Repository at 333 West Nye Lane, Suite 100, Carson City, NV 89706. You may call them at (775) 684 6262 or you may fax them at (775) 684 6266.

The Sex Offender Registry updates the information regularly to be able to provide the people with accurate information and to aid them in taking precautions against the sex offenders in the state.