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BACK TO POLITICAL PLAYBOOK Links to Related Material National Victim Center: One of the largest non-profits advocating for the victims of crime. Survivors of Stalking: "End the Silence That Kills." National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: A private, non-profit organization working in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice. Klaaskids: "Making the world safer for our children."

Crackdown on Sex Offenders Posted August 15, 1996 That cloud of smoke you saw Congress leave behind when its members fled town for a summer recess was political cover -- a last-minute burst of lawmaking on issues ranging from an increase in the minimum wage to a guarantee of health insurance portability to new drinking water standards. The legislative calendar for the remaining weeks of the 104th Congress is sparse, and few high profile bills like the minimum wage remain on the table. But a few less well-known proposals are still winding their way through the House and Senate. This week, we look at a group of laws designed to crack down on sex offenders. The prevention and punishment of sexual crimes is still surrounded by legal ambiguity and social debate. These measures attempt to close some loopholes in the law, and toughen penalties for the convicted. They come on the heels of the recently enacted "Megan's Law", named after a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a child molester who moved into her neighborhood. Megan's Law requires the notification of a local community when a sex offender moves into the area. With little time remaining for this Congress to do its work, not to mention the huge distractions of the November elections, these bills may not pass into law. But they do provide a good indicator of a growing emphasis on social and crime issues on Capitol Hill. STALKING Nuts and Bolts: Although thousands of women are hounded by stalkers every year, the law did not recognize stalking as a crime until 1990, when California passed the first statute punishing it. Six years later, some members of Congress are fighting to expand and toughen anti-stalking laws. A measure nearing passage would make stalking across state lines a federal offense, and would make restraining orders issued in any one state effective in all 50. Under current law, restraining orders don't apply outside the states in which they are passed. In other words, a person who is prevented from approaching you in Ohio is not prevented from confronting you in Florida. The new law would make "interstate stalking" a felony crime, and bring a minimum penalty of 5 years in prison, and up to 20 years when leading to the victim's serious injury or death. A law passed as part of the 1994 Crime Bill covered only interstate stalking by former spouses or intimate partners. The Senate version of this bill would also prevent anyone convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor from owning a gun (previously prevented only by a felony conviction). Status: The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the measure by voice vote on May 23, and the full Senate followed suit on July 25. The House passed a version on May 7. President Clinton has said he would sign such a bill. Inside Scoop: The bill was sponsored in the House by Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX, but held up for several months by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, who fought to add the gun ownership language. Many of the bill's supporters were upset that Lautenberg stalled it by picking a fight with gun rights advocates in Congress, who eventually forced a minor softening of the gun language. Hutchison, one of the party's most visible women, has been at the fore of several Republican efforts to focus on legislation appealing to specifically to women. She herself was stalked in the 1970s by a man who allegedly broke into her campaign office and stabbed a poster of her with an ice pick. CHILD PORNOGRAPHY Nuts and Bolts: As politicians try to keep the law apace with advancements in computer technology, a bill is under consideration that would expand the application of child pornography laws to computer generated images. The proposed law would broaden the definition of child pornography to include sexually explicit images that may not actually include children - such as digital composite images. The bill would also increase penalties for possessing, distributing or producing child pornography, and prevent law enforcement officials from civil lawsuits resulting from their investigations in child pornography and exploitation cases. Status: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure on July 25, 16-2. The Clinton administration has expressed support. Inside Scoop: In sponsoring this bill at a hearing of his Judiciary Committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, grabbed the opportunity to make a political attack on the Clinton administration, despite its support of the measure. Hatch has been harshly condemning Clinton-appointed judges and prosecutors for being soft on pornography crimes. Those attacks echo a campaign theme of Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, who has charged that Clinton is loading the judiciary with ultraliberal judges overly concerned with criminals' rights. SEX OFFENDER DATABASE Nuts and Bolts: The bill would create a national database of the names and addresses of sex offenders who have been released from jail. It is intended to allow better communication between law enforcement officials around the country. Community and private groups would also have access to some of the information. The 1994 Crime Bill ordered states to keep registries, but there has been little sharing of information between states. Under the new law, sex offenders would be required to check in with the FBI regularly to verify their addresses. Offenders whose addresses became unknown would be punished, and their names added to a law enforcement bulletin. Status: The Senate approved the bill by voice vote on July 25. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House, but has not been considered yet. President Clinton supports the registry, and has asked Attorney General Janet Reno to order a study on how one can best be established. Inside Scoop: While there are few less pitiable types of people in the world than sex offenders and child molesters, recent measures such as this bill and Megan's Law have touched off a debate over the rights of convicts. For some, completion of their sentence in prison is followed by constant harassment, loathing and threats from the notified communities they move to. Many parents insist they must be warned if, as in one New Jersey suburb, a convicted child molester moves into a house adjacent to a busy school bus stop. In the current conservative political climate, however, the trend toward less forgiving treatment of convicted sex offenders is likely to continue.