treated as private data, and
(2) it substituted mandatory language for previously permissive language concerning the release of relevant information that is necessary to protect the public concerning registered sex offenders.
Although the federal law mandates notification of registered sex offenders, it leaves it up to each state as to how to establish its own form of notification (Mader, 1996). In other words, the methods that can be used to inform the community are flexible but the registration of sex offenders and the notification of community members regarding registered sex offenders moving into their neighborhood is made mandatory by P.L. 105-145.
With respect to the foregoing, some state registration and notification systems have been challenged on constitutional grounds. However, the majority of courts that have dealt with the issue have held that systems like those contemplated by the Jacob Wetterling Act do not violate released offenders' constitutional rights. A few courts, however, have found that certain
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