North Carolina Sex Offender Registration Laws

The North Carolina sex offenders pose a major threat to the welfare of the society and measures must be taken to prevent any sex crimes. In view of the increasing sex offenses and the need to protect the society, the North Carolina Department of Justice has designed programs to make the general public aware of the sex offenders.

Any person who is convicted of committing a sex crime like sexual abuse of a child, promoting pornography and supplying children with pornographic material, rape, sexual assault of a minor and others are referred to as a sex offender. The crimes in the state of North Carolina that fall under the category of sexual offense are listed below:

•    Offenses against a minor: these include kidnapping (by anyone other than parents or legal guardians), abduction of children, and felonious restraint of minors.
•    Violent sexual offenses: first degree rape, second degree rape, rape of a child by an adult, any other first degree and second degree sexual offense other than rape, attempt to rape or attempt to any sexual offense, forceful sexual intercourse with the victim, rape of a 13 to 15 year old victim by an offender who is at least 6 years older than the victim, subjecting a person to sexual servitude, exploitation of minors, sexual intercourse within family, first degree, second degree and third degree exploitation of minors are all considered as sexually violent offenses. Participating in prostitution of a person under 18 years of age, promoting prostitution of minors, taking sexual advantage of children, also fall under the category of violent sexual crimes.
•    Convictions related to attempt, conspiracy, and solicitation: any person helping in an “offense against a minor” or a sexually violent crime is charged as a sex offender.

North Carolina Sex Offender and Public Protection Registration Programs

The “Sex Offender and Public Protection Registration Programs” was designed by the authorities of North Carolina as a result of the enactment of the “Chapter 14, Article 27A of the North Carolina General Statutes.” It requires any North Carolina sex offender to register with the local law enforcement authorities. These registrants are classified into four groups depending on the nature of conviction. These are offenders, aggravated offenders, recidivists and sexually violent predators.

Part 2 of the “Sex Offender and Public Protection registration Program” declares individuals who are required to register under the program for adult criminals as “offenders”.

All restrictions imposed on Part 2 offenders in North Carolina are also imposed on Part 3 registrants following North Carolina General Statute’s Article 208.21 Chapter 14. The nature of the offenses committed by Part 3 criminals are graver than those committed by Part 2 offenders. Because of this and because of specifications from the court, the “aggravated offenders”, and sexual predators are subjected to additional restrictions other than the restrictions placed on the Part 2 offenders. A sexual predator is a sexual offender who has a high tendency to repeat his or her crime. Any offender convicted of committing an aggravated crime is an “aggravated offender”.

A recidivist is an individual who has past records of being convicted of a sex offense.

A sexually violent predator is a person who was convicted of a sexual offense and is suffering from psychological abnormality or any kind of personality disorder that enhances his probability of committing the crime again.

North Carolina Sex Offender Registration Procedure

Any North Carolina sex offender is required to register with the sheriff of the respective county within 10 days of release or arrival in any county of North Carolina. For offenders coming to North Carolina from other states, he must register if he is staying in the state for 15 consecutive days.

For a detailed understanding of all the rules regarding the sex offenses and the sex offenders visit http://www.jus.state.nc.us/NCJA/SEXOFFEN.pdf.

You may also visit the official website of the Attorney General of North Carolina for information related to the sex offender registry and how to locate a NC registered sex offender. The link is http://sexoffender.ncdoj.gov/.