PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - CL Scott AU - JB Gerbasi TI - Sex offender registration and community notification challenges: the Supreme Court continues its trend DP - 2003 Dec 01 TA - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online PG - 494--501 VI - 31 IP - 4 4099 - http://jaapl.org/content/31/4/494.short 4100 - http://jaapl.org/content/31/4/494.full SO - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2003 Dec 01; 31 AB - All states and the District of Columbia have passed sex offender registration and community notification laws. While the specific provisions of these statutes vary, all have public safety as a primary goal. The authors discuss two recent cases heard by the United States Supreme Court that challenged the constitutionality of Alaska's and Connecticut's statutes. The laws were challenged as violations of the United States Constitution's prohibition on ex post facto laws and its Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of procedural due process. In both cases, the statutes were upheld. As it has found in challenges to sexually violent predator statutes, the Court emphasized that the registration and community notification schemes are civil and not criminal in nature. The article concludes with a discussion of possible implications for clinicians involved in evaluating or treating sex offenders.