§2A3.5 Failure to Register as a Sex Offender: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021
Fiscal year 2021 had 257 people sentenced under §2A3.5 as the primary guideline, the lowest count in the yearly table for fiscal years 2016 to 2025. 249 (97%) were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 18 months. 255 (more than 99%) pleaded guilty, and 2 were convicted after a trial.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A3.5 Failure to Register as a Sex Offender › §2A3.5: FY2021
In brief: Fiscal year 2021 had 257 people sentenced under §2A3.5 as the primary guideline, the lowest count in the yearly table for fiscal years 2016 to 2025. 249 (97%) were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 18 months. 255 (more than 99%) pleaded guilty, and 2 were convicted after a trial.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 257 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
The Lowest Yearly Count in the Table
In fiscal year 2021, the U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 257 people whose primary guideline was §2A3.5, "Failure to Register as a Sex Offender." The yearly table below shows a higher count in every other year from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2025.
Fiscal year 2021 ran from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. The records do not give a reason for the count, and a single year is not a trend.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 427 | 18 months | 99% |
| 2017 | 384 | 20.5 months | 99% |
| 2018 | 360 | 18 months | more than 99% |
| 2019 | 360 | 18 months | more than 99% |
| 2020 | 291 | 18 months | 99% |
| 2021 | 257 | 18 months | more than 99% |
| 2022 | 307 | 18 months | 97% |
| 2023 | 282 | 18 months | 98% |
| 2024 | 310 | 18 months | 98% |
| 2025 | 291 | 18 months | more than 99% |
Sentences Imposed
249 of the 257 people (97%) were sentenced to prison. 7 (3%) received probation only. Probation only means no prison and no other confinement.
The median prison term was 18 months. A quarter of the terms were 27 months or longer, and a quarter were 12 months or shorter. The Commission reports the sentence the court imposed, not the time a person served.
Guilty Pleas and Plea Agreements
Only 2 people were convicted after a trial, so 255 pleaded guilty (more than 99%). The median prison term after a guilty plea was 18 months, and the median after a trial was 36 months.
Because the trial group has only 2 people, that figure cannot be read as typical.
Among those who pleaded guilty, 72% had a written agreement with the government, and 28% did not. In earlier years of this series, the written agreement share was lower.
How Sentences Related to the Range
The guideline range is the sentencing range the Guidelines Manual calculates for a case. In fiscal year 2021, 133 sentences (52%) were within that range. 72 (28%) were below it without a government request, and 42 (16%) were below it at the government's request. 10 (4%) were above it.
The share within the range was 52% in fiscal year 2020 and 51% in fiscal year 2022. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2021, it was 43%.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
Supervised release followed prison for 246 people (96%), with a median term of 60 months. 3 people (1%) received it for life.
5 people (2%) were fined, and 1 person (less than 1%) was ordered to pay restitution. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 257 people (0%).
Criminal History Categories
5% of the group was in the lowest criminal history category (category I), and 18% was in the highest (category VI). Court-martial records do not have this field.
Series and All-Guidelines Totals
From fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2025, 3,269 people were sentenced under §2A3.5. 96% went to prison, the median was 18 months, 99% pleaded guilty, and 55% were within the guideline range.
In fiscal year 2021, all guidelines together covered 57,287 people, with a median prison term of 29 months and a guilty plea share of 98%. The §2A3.5 median was lower than the all-guidelines median.
Scope
The Commission places these cases under Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses and counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. This guideline has no close court-martial counterpart in the site's crosswalk, so the post covers federal numbers alone.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A3.5 (257), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2A3.5 Failure to Register as a Sex Offender: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A3.5 Failure to Register as a Sex Offender: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A3.5 Failure to Register as a Sex Offender: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.