In October 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint and never seen again.
When the boy’s mother, Patty Wetterling, learned that her home state of Minnesota did not have a database of possible suspects—notably convicted sex offenders—she set out to make a change.
Wetterling’s efforts led to the passage of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which was signed into federal law by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Jacob’s Law was the first effort to establish a nationwide registry of convicted sex offenders, but it was not the last. Full Article
The registry is a false sense of security. Just because there’s a name on a registered website does not mean that will stop a registered sex offender. There are numerous cases were registered sex offenders have been assaulted by Vigilantes. But there is zero proof that the registry has saved or stopped and individuals committing a sex-related crime. Just because you check the registry before you buy a house in a community, which most people don’t, does not mean a register sex offender will not move in after you purchase the house. Therefore the registry is a big waste of money to the taxpayers and a waste of time of the federal government managing the website for zero benefit. Most sex offenders do not hunt in their own neighborhood or the other sex offenders typically are family related.