[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 515 Introduced in House (IH)]

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.

    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 ``National Child Abuser Registration 
Act of 1993''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    For the purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``child'' means a person who is a child for 
        the purposes of the criminal child abuse law of a State;
            (2) the term ``child abuse'' means the physical, 
        psychological, or emotional injuring, sexual abuse or 
        exploitation, neglectful treatment, or maltreatment of a child 
        by any person in violation of the criminal child abuse law of a 
        State;
            (3) the term ``child abuser information'' means the 
        following facts concerning a person who has violated the 
        criminal child abuse laws of a State:
                    (A) name, social security number, age, race, sex, 
                date of birth, height, weight, hair and eye color, 
                address of legal residence, and a brief description of 
                the crime or crimes committed by the offender; and
                    (B) any other information that the Federal Bureau 
                of Investigation or the National Crime Information 
                Center determines may be useful in identifying child 
                abusers;
            (4) the term ``criminal child abuse law of a State'' means 
        the law of a State that establishes criminal penalties for the 
        commission of child abuse by a parent or other family member of 
        a child or by any other person;
            (5) the term ``National Crime Information Center'' means 
        the division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that serves 
        as a computerized information source on wanted criminals, 
        persons named in arrest warrants, runaways, missing children, 
        and stolen property for use by Federal, State, and local law 
        enforcement authorities; and
            (6) the term ``State'' means each of the States, the 
        District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American 
        Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Trust Territories of 
        the Pacific.

SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) disturbing increases have occurred in recent years in 
        the number of children who are abused by persons who have 
        previously committed crimes of child abuse;
            (2) many children who run away from home, who fall prey to 
        pornography and prostitution, who suffer from a dependency on 
        alcohol and drugs, and who become juvenile offenders, have been 
        victims of child abuse;
            (3) research has shown that child abuse tends to repeat 
        itself, and many parents who abuse their children were once 
        victims themselves;
            (4) in recognition of the increased cases of child abuse, 
        several States have established agencies to receive and 
        maintain data relating to cases of child abuse;
            (5) currently there exists no centralized national source 
        through which a law enforcement agency can obtain data relating 
        to persons who have committed crimes of child abuse;
            (6) partly because of the lack of available and accurate 
        information at the national level, persons who have committed 
        acts of child abuse in one State have been able to go to 
        another State to commit the crime again, in many cases in a 
        position of authority over children; and
            (7) the Nation cannot afford to ignore the importance of 
        preventing child abuse.

SEC. 4. PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to establish a national system through which current, 
        accurate information concerning persons who commit crimes of 
        child abuse can be obtained from a centralized source;
            (2) to assist in the prevention of second incidents of 
        child abuse by providing information about persons who have 
        been convicted of a crime of child abuse to organizations whose 
        primary concern is that of child welfare and care; and
            (3) to understand the problem of child abuse in the United 
        States by providing statistical and informational data to the 
        Department of Justice, the National Center on Child Abuse and 
        Neglect, the Congress, and other interested parties.

SEC. 5. REPORTING BY THE STATES.

    (a) In General.--A State which reports the convictions of named 
individuals to the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall include all 
convictions for child abuse as defined under this Act.
    (b) Guidelines.--The Attorney General shall establish guidelines 
for the reporting of child abuser information, including procedures for 
carrying out the purposes of this Act.
    (c) Annual Summary.--The Attorney General shall publish an annual 
statistical summary of the child abuser information reported under this 
Act.

SEC. 6. STATE COMPLIANCE.

    (a) In General.--Each State shall have 3 years from the date of the 
enactment of this section in which to implement the provisions of 
section 5.
    (b) Ineligibility for Funds.--The allocations of funds under 
section 506 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 
Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3756) received by a State not complying with the 
provisions of section 5, 3 years after the date of the enactment of 
this Act shall be reduced by 25 percent and the unallocated funds shall 
be reallocated to the States in compliance with this section.

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