Proposed reforms fall into two broad categories: advocacy for reform of statutory rape laws that may require a teenager to register as a sex offender for sexting or consensual sexual acts involving another teen, on the one hand,[1][2][3][4] and broader efforts to modify sex offender registration laws based upon what advocates see as disproportionate impact on the lives of convicted offenders compared to the public benefits derived, on the other.
[15] Proposals include making registries available for law enforcement only, and empowering officials to use greater judgment in determining who should be required to register.
of Public Safety v. Doe upholding the registration schemes as civil regulations led to runaway legislation that has become "unmoored from its initial constitutional grounding" By leaving such schemes immune to substantive due process and procedural due process requirements normally associated with criminal laws, they argue, legislators were left free "to draft increasingly harsh registration and notification schemes to please an electorate that subsists on a steady diet of fear".
Reform opponents have also argued that opposition to registration is based on the assumption that to be effective, measures must work every time, thus undervaluing small reductions.
[39][8] In April 2015 Women Against Registry announced that it has begun gathering information and participants for two class action lawsuits to be filed in United States federal court.
[30][40] In 2016 Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws sued the government for the unique identifier planned to be printed on passports of some registrants.