Who are the people in your neighborhood? Due process, public protection, and sex offender notification laws

All fifty states have enacted sex offender registration acts (SORAs). In ad dition to requiring registration with the state, these laws usually provide for the notification of an individual's status as a sex offender-along wit h the dissemination of personal information--to law enforcement officials a nd members of the community. In this Note, Jane Small argues for enhanced d ue process protections for offenders when they are required to register. Si nce SORAs are not aimed at punishment but rather community protection, they are civil, not criminal, statutes and the due process standard for civil p roceedings, as announced in Mathews v. Eldridge, ought to be applied That s tandard requires a court to weigh the risk of depriving an individual of a protected interest against the governmental interest embodied in a particul ar procedure. Small survey SORAs' problems, including the inappropriately g eneralized categorization of sex offenders and the danger notification pose s to individual offenders, and outlines recent cases applying the Mathews s tandard to assess the constitutionality of SORAs. She then evaluates availa ble procedural protections and current notification mechanisms for their co mpliance with the requirements of Mathews. She concludes that an individual ised, fact-specific assessment must be made in every case, and that the pro ceedings must be narrowly geared to the legitimate aim of SORAs--community protection-in order not to infringe on the individual's interests any more than is necessary to achieve that aim.