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Criminal Justice > Criminal Psychology > Crime Prevention Policies > Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006

Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006




On July 27, 2006, President George Walker Bush signed into law H.R. 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (AWCPSA 2006). The act addresses four issues:




  • L. 109-248 provides the reformulation of federal standards regarding sex offender registries for states, territories, and tribal lands, resulting in more inclusive, informative, publicly available, and uniform information about the protections for children from violent crime with an emphasis on the prevention of sex offenders’ access to children.
  • L. 109-248 provides for the creation, amendment, or revision of grant programs designed to reinforce local, private, state, territorial, and tribal prevention law enforcement (particularly justice systems) to create, pool, and share resources to identify individuals who pose a threat of harm to children.
  • L. 109-248 strengthens a diverse set of amendments to federal criminal law and procedures that created processes for the civil commitment of convicted sex offenders upon their release from prison and provides for random search authority over sex offenders on probation or supervised release as well as new mandatory minimum prison sentences for new and existing federal sex offenses.
  • L. 109-248 promotes and prescribes a variety of administrative or regulatory initiatives and programs (e.g., funds for online child safety and fingerprinting printing programs) aimed at preventing crimes against children such as the National Child Abuse Registry.

The AWCPSA 2006 also gave state social service agencies with child protection responsibilities access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. The NCIC database provides social service agencies with criminal history records, domestic violence records, identification records, protection order records, and stalking records.

The AWCPSA 2006 provided procedures for states to conduct criminal background investigations on individuals and couples applying as prospective foster or adoptive parents to include the requirement for fingerprinting and records checks through the NCIC and National Child Abuse Registry before approval and placement. If a prospective foster parent or adoptive parent has a conviction for a felony involving child abuse or neglect, spousal abuse, crimes against children including child pornography, crimes of violence including domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, assault, battery, or homicide, his or her application would be disallowed.

The AWCPSA 2006 also eliminated states’ optout provisions of compliance with the full provisions contained within the AWCPSA 2006 effective October 1, 2008. Section 209 of the AWCPSA 2006 also denoted a change to section 2258 of title 18, U.S. Code, increasing the penalties for a covered professional found guilty of failure to report child abuse to include a fine and incarceration for not more than 1 year. The term covered professionals applies to those individuals engaged in professional activities on federal land or in a federally operated or federally contracted facility.

The AWCPSA 2006 also requires the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create and maintain an electronic National Registry of Substantiated Cases of Child Abuse and Neglect accessible via the Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Welfare Information Gateway.

After reviewing the circumstances that led to the AWCPSA 2006, this article focuses on the implications of the act with regard to child protection.

Background

The Adam John Walsh Case

On July 27, 1981, at 12 p.m., 6-year-old Adam John Walsh was abducted outside of the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, FL. A Sears and Roebuck department store manager alerted a security guard that several boys had become involved in a scuffle at a video game display. The responding security officer spoke with the boys who reported to be at the mall without their parents. Adam was part of the group but failed to inform the security guard that his mother was in the Sears lamp department. All the boys were escorted outside the mall and left alone without adult supervision; this was the last time Adam was seen alive.

On August 10, 1981, Adam’s severed head was discovered 130 miles away in a Vero Beach Canal by two fishermen. The coroner determined that Adam died of asphyxiation before being decapitated. As of 2018, Adam’s body was still unrecovered.

On October 21, 1983, Ottis Elwood Toole, a convicted serial murderer and serial arsonist, confessed to having murdered Adam. Toole later recanted his confession. According to Toole’s niece, before his death on September 15, 1996, Toole again confessed to her that he had, in fact, killed Adam. Toole’s niece notified police and Adam’s family of Toole’s deathbed confession. On December 16, 2008, Hollywood Police Chief Chad Wagner officially announced Toole as Adam’s killer and closed the case.

Awareness Born Out of Tragedy

Following Adam’s disappearance, his parents, Revé and John Edward Walsh, Jr., discovered that there were no coordinated local, state, or federal resources available to assist in the search for missing children. Law enforcement could enter information on stolen vehicles, guns, horses, household items, and jewelry into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) NCIC database but not missing or abducted children. As a result, they founded the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children, a nonprofit organization, to serve as the first national resource for families with missing children and to lobby for legislative reform. Because of Adam’s parents’ efforts, Congress ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin entering information on missing children into its NCIC database.

Because of Adam’s case and multiple others, on May 25, 1983, President Ronald Reagan declared May 25 to be National Missing Children’s Day. On April 9, 1984, the Walshes cofounded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). On June 13, 1984, Reagan officially opened the center with a national 24-hr toll-free hotline for reports of information regarding missing children: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800843-5678). In 1990, the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children was merged with the NCMEC.

Implications for Child Protection

With the passage of the AWCPSA 2006 came the creation of the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). SMART administers standards for the sex offender registration and notification program outlined in Title I of the AWCPSA 2006. SMART also administers grants involving sex offender registration and notification under the AWCPSA 2006 and other programs as directed by the Attorney General. SMART works with and supports all U.S. states, territories, tribal governments, and public and private bodies involved with sex offender registration and notification. It also acts as a supply line to these entities to ensure the protection of children and other members of the community.

Over the years, SMART has developed a website furthering access to its databases to those working with sex offender registration and notification. SMART provides resource materials to further the cause of child and community protection. Resources include educational and legislative materials. Government agencies, private for-profit, private nonprofit, faith-based organizations, students, and the public all can subscribe to and receive email updates from SMART at NewsFromSMART@ncjrs.gov.

Because of the creation of the NCMEC and passage of AWCPSA in 2006, more than 211,000 missing children have been recovered as of 2016. The NCMEC currently has six operating divisions: Missing Children, Exploited Children, Case Analysis, Family Advocacy, Training, and External Affairs. According to the NCMEC’s 2014 Annual Report, its CyberTipline (www.cybertipline.org) received more than 3.3 million reports, and its call center received more than 4 million calls since inception in 1984. NCMEC reports the review of more than 132 million child pornography images using its Child Victim Identification Program. NCMEC assisted local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies in identifying more than 2,480 victims bringing the total number of child pornography victims identified to 7,917. NCMEC indicated that in 2014 alone the CyberTipline experienced an increase of more than 600,000 reports of child pornography, representing 98% of the reports received.

The NCMEC also instituted its Notice Tracking System. Notice Tracking System is a voluntary initiative with the Internet industry, whereby the NCMEC notifies companies when their corporate servers are discovered to contain or have downloaded or saved web pages depicting apparent child pornography. In 2014, the NCMEC provided over 21,000 notices to companies of apparent child pornography located on their corporate systems. As a direct result, the affected companies were able to respond rapidly and have these images investigated and removed from their corporate servers in fewer than 28 hr of initial notification.

The NCMEC’s Child Sex Trafficking Team in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice provides support to the Innocence Lost National Initiative. Since its partnership in 2003, the Innocence Lost National Initiative has developed more than 70 dedicated task forces in cooperation with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. More than 4,800 children have been rescued with the prosecution of more than 2,000 offenders, and the seizure of real property, vehicles, and monetary assets of more than $3.1 million because of these task-force partnerships. In at least 15 cases, the offenders received sentences of incarceration for life.

In October 2015, the Innocence Lost National Initiative conducted Operation Cross Country, resulting in the recovery of 149 sexually exploited children and the arrests of more than 150 offenders. More than 500 law enforcement officers and 100 victim specialists nationwide took part in the operation. In the sex trafficking component of Operation Cross Country, 168 trafficking victims were recovered and 261 offenders were arrested.

The death of 6-year-old Adam John Walsh resulted in a legacy that has and continues to save the lives of numerous children.

References:

  1. American Public Human Services Association. (2006, July 27). Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. Retrieved from American Public Human Services Association: http://www.aphsa.org/content/dam/AAICPC/PDF%20DOC/Home%20page/Summary-Adam_Walsh_Act.pdf
  2. Congress, 109th United States of America. (2006, July 27). 109th Congress Public Law 248—Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. Retrieved from United States Government Publishing Office: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ248/html/PLAW-109publ248.htm
  3. Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2016). Innocence Lost National Initiative. Retrieved from Violent Crimes Against Children: https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/ investigate/vc_majorthefts/cac/innocencelost
  4. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. (2014). 2014 Annual Report: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Alexandria, VA: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Retrieved from http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/ publications/NCMEC_2014.pdf
  5. National Criminal Justice Association. (2015). Adam Walsh Act and SORNA. Retrieved from National Criminal Justice Association: http://www.ncja.org/Adam%20Walsh%20Act%20and%20SORNA
  6. Office of Justice Programs. (2016). Office of sex offender sentencing, monitoring, apprehending, registering, and tracking. Retrieved from SMART: http://www.smart.gov/ Sensenbrenner, F. J. [R-WI-5] (2006, July 27). H. R. 4472—Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (109th Congress 2005-2006). Retrieved from Congress.gov: https://www.congress.gov/bill/109thcongress/house-bill/4472
  7. United States Department of Health and Human Services. (2012, September). Assessing the feasibility of creating and maintaining a national registry of child maltreatment perpetrators: Research Report 12/31/1969. Retrieved from United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation: https://aspe.hhs.gov/legacy-page/assessing-feasibility-creating-and -maintaining-national-registry-child-maltreatmentperpetrators-research-report-146156
  8. United States Department of Health and Human Services. (2016). Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Children & Families: Children’s Bureau: https://www.childwelfare.gov/
  9. United States Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs. (n.d.). Guidance for SORNA tribal jurisdictions: Applying for additional time to implement SORNA. Washington, DC: United States Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from United States Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART): http://ojp.gov/smart/pdfs/SORNA_tribal_guidelines.pdf