Since its inception in 1997, the United Kingdom sex offender ‘register’ has been continually strengthened and tightened in areas prompted by particular events in the community or in response to the general public’s hostility toward sex offenders. The conditions attached to registration have tightened and the police given more powers over those required to register. Punishments for noncompliance continue to rise, despite a compliance rate of 97 percent. Early release from prison has been denied and new powers to force entry to homes for purposes of risk assessment have been given. There has been little resistance to these changes in strengthening the register, in a climate of popular punitiveness, whereby popular opinion replaces research and considered debate. The question presented in this article is whether the sex offender register has moved from being a public protection measure to become a punishment in its own right. The effectiveness of the register, however, remains unknown and almost impossible to measure in terms of making communities safer. References