[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3990 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3990

              To provide protection from sexual predators.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 9, 1994

 Ms. Slaughter (for herself, Mr. Abercrombie, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Evans, 
  Mr. Frost, Mr. Hochbrueckner, Mr. King, Mr. Klug, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. 
Stupak, Mr. Towns, and Mr. Engle) introduced the following bill; which 
             was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
              To provide protection from sexual predators.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Protection from Sexual Predators Act 
of 1994''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that.--
            (1) rape and sexual assaults continue to be serious threats 
        to the safety of communities across America;
            (2) sexual offenders are much more likely than any other 
        category of criminals to repeat their crimes again and again, 
        even after serving time in prison; and
            (3) the average rape sentence is just 10\1/2\ years, and 
        the average time served is half of that, approximately 5 years.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) States should more seriously consider the relatively 
        high recidivism rate of sexual offenders when deciding whether 
        to plea bargain with a first-time sexual offender and whether 
        to grant parole to sexual offenders; and
            (2) States should review their treatment and parole 
        supervision programs for sexual offenders to assure that these 
        programs are fulfilling their goals, and, if they are not, 
        these programs should be immediately replaced or abandoned.

SEC. 3. FEDERAL JURISDICTION OVER RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT CASES.

    Section 2241 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
    ``(e) Punishment for Sexual Predators.--(1) Whoever, in a 
circumstance described in paragraph (2) of this subsection--
            ``(A) violates this section; or
            ``(B) engages in conduct, in or affecting interstate or 
        foreign commerce, that would be a violation of subsection (a), 
        (b), or (c) of this section, if the offense had occurred in the 
        special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United 
        States;
shall be imprisoned for life.
    ``(2) The circumstance referred to in paragraph (1) of this 
subsection is that the defendant has previously been convicted of 
another State or Federal offense for conduct which--
            ``(A) is an offense under this section or section 2242 of 
        this title; or
            ``(B) would have been an offense under either of such 
        sections if the offense had occurred in the special maritime or 
        territorial jurisdiction of the United States.''.

SEC. 4. REGISTRATION PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) State guidelines.--
                    (A) Generally.--The Attorney General shall 
                establish guidelines for State programs requiring--
                            (i) any person who is convicted of a sex 
                        offense to register and keep up to date a 
                        current address with a designated State law 
                        enforcement agency for 10 years after release 
                        from prison, or being placed on parole, 
                        supervised release, or probation; and
                            (ii) each State to provide information 
                        obtained about the registered person to the 
                        Attorney General on a prompt and regular basis 
                        and in a uniform format.
                    (B) Required content of guidelines.--Such 
                guidelines shall require the inclusion of such data 
                about--
                            (i) the registered person, including 
                        fingerprints and photographs; and
                            (ii) that person's offenses and modus 
                        operandi;
                as the Attorney General deems useful for assisting law 
                enforcement investigations by Federal, State, and other 
                law enforcement authorities.
            (2) Definition.--For purposes of this subsection, the term 
        ``sex offense'' means any State or Federal offense that--
                    (A) is an offense under section 2241 or 2242 of 
                title 18, United States Code; or
                    (B) would have been an offense under either of such 
                sections if the offense had occurred in the special 
                maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United 
                States.
    (b) Availability of Information.--The Attorney General shall 
maintain on-line availability of information obtained under this 
section for use by authorized law enforcement agencies in carrying out 
their functions. The Attorney General shall by rule provide for the 
privacy of the information so maintained.
    (c) Compliance.--
            (1) Compliance date.--Each State shall have 3 years from 
        the date of the enactment of this Act in which to implement 
        this section.
            (2) Ineligibility for funds.--The allocation of funds under 
        title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 
        1968 received by a State not complying with the guidelines 
        issued under this section 3 years after the date of enactment 
        of this Act may be reduced by 10 percent and the unallocated 
        funds shall be reallocated to the States in compliance with 
        this section.

SEC. 5. STUDY OF PERSISTENT SEXUAL PREDATORS.

    The National Institute of Justice, either directly or through 
grant, shall carry out a study of persistent sexual predators. Not 
later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, such 
Institute shall report to Congress and the President the results of 
such study. Such report shall include--
            (1) a synthesis of current research in psychology, 
        sociology, law, criminal justice, and other fields regarding 
        persistent sexual offenders, including--
                    (A) common characteristics of such offenders;
                    (B) recidivism rates for such offenders;
                    (C) treatment techniques and their effectiveness;
                    (D) responses of offenders to treatment and 
                deterrence; and
                    (E) the possibility of early intervention to 
                prevent people from becoming sexual predators; and
            (2) an agenda for future research in this area.

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