In the United States, there are currently about 805,781 sex offenders registered in the US. With that many sex offenders unleashed across the nation, it sheds light on how important it is for families with young children or teens to know their surroundings. Now keep in mind that this number seems huge because not all of those sex offenders are dangerous predators and child molesters. Some are harmless men that have simply been caught peeing on a public property like a school yard or a public park, while others are dangerous individuals that have been charged with rape and sexual assault multiple times. It is important to know the difference. A tool like SeekVerify, which I recommend, will not only show you how many sex offenders live in your neighborhood but will also show you what they have been charged with, so you can determine whether they are dangerous or not to your family.
Now, let’s get back to the core of this article which is the states with the highest rate of registered sex offenders. If you are planning a move out of state, it is important to know the facts of your new state when it comes to sex offenders. You can look at those rates and see what the states do to prevent sex offenses from occurring and what they do to rehabilitate convicted offenders. You can find information about your state’s rehabilitation measures for sex offenders on the National Sex Offender Public Website run by the U.S. National Department of Justice.
Each state’s registry is ensured to be accurate and up-to-date as its content is updated every day, if not several times a day. When comparing a number of sex offenders in each state, it is important to understand that each state differentiates on what they consider a sex offender to be.
When it comes to the total amount of sex offenders by state, California takes the proverbial cake, but that makes sense given its high population. Texas and New York also harbor a high number of offenders for the same reasons. For the sake of this article, we will on the RATE of sex offenders instead of the total amount, which gives you a clearer picture of how likely you and your family are to cross paths with a sex offender in each state.
The list below consists of the top 10 states with the highest rate per capita, which means per 1,000 people. The list was composed using up-to-date demographic information from each state, and the number of sex offenders in each state was extracted from the Parent’s for Megan’s Law website. Here is the list of the top 10 states with the highest amount of sex offenders per thousand (1,000) people:
10. Colorado – 3.10
Colorado has 16,098 sex offenders living in their state. In 2005, their policy was revised to release more information about their offenders. This includes the sexual offenses they were convicted of. Plus, they update their database several times a day.
9. Florida – 3.17
With a total of 61,303 sex offenders in Florida, it is tough to understand why they have such lenient policies where sexual predators can live and work. Their only policy is preventing sex offenders from working in a position where they would be in contact with kids.
8. Minnesota – 3.26
The state of Minnesota has 17,541 offenders in their state. After each sex offender serves their time, they are put in rehabilitation treatments for an indeterminate amount of time. The treatment consists of individual and group therapy.
7. South Dakota – 3.76
With 3,132 sex offenders in South Dakota, they say their database is updated frequently. Unlike other states, they do not give any specifics. Rather, they say the information changes so much that it is nearly impossible to keep it updated all the time.
6. Wisconsin – 3.98
Wisconsin has 22,803 total sex offenders registered in their database. Their policy aims to convict any predator, who harms children, for up to a decade. Despite the time a convicted offender will have to serve, they still have a high rate of sex offenders in their state.
5. Michigan – 4.12
Despite being high on the list with a total of 40,692 registered offenders, Michigan’s total has declined from 50,000 in the last five years. The State of Michigan is trying hard to improve its tracking of sex offenders and tighten its policies.
4. Arkansas – 4.38
The state of Arkansas has 12,919 sex offenders. One of the states issues is only releasing names and addresses of offenders. Maybe they need to consider releasing information about what each offender is guilty of.
3. Oregon – 4.87
Oregon has 19,000 registered offenders. Their database is updated frequently, but it only contains information about offenders that pose the greatest threats. They could consider expanding the requirements for whose information gets released.
2. Wyoming – 6.32
Wyoming lists information about all 3,641 of its registered sex offenders. They claim that anyone listed in the registry is not considered to be dangerous at the moment. Wyoming is definitely a state that could improve its tracking and policies in regards to sexual predators.
1. Delaware – 7.70
Delaware has 4,871 sex offenders in their database, which is huge given their relatively small population. Despite having the highest rate of sex offenders, they try to combat that by making sure offenders register their new home address within three days. This is significantly shorter than most states, which may offer up to a week and a half.
Conclusion: know the numbers for your neighborhood
The rate of sex offenders per capita is good to know, but knowing the numbers for YOUR neighborhood is what really matters. After all, you could be living in one of the safest states with the lowest amount of sex offenders per capita, but they happen to all be in your neighborhood! Does that make it any better? Probably not. We cannot cover all cities and towns in this article or it would become a novel, so we have partnered up with SeekVerify, a tool that lets you enter your zip code to generate a map of your neighborhood showing you exactly how many sex offenders live near you and what they have been charged with and when. This gives you invaluable information when it comes to deciding whether your neighborhood is safe enough for your family or if you should consider moving.
Get Notifications when Registered Sex Offenders Move in Your Neighborhood
What’s great about an app like SeekVerify is that it can also send you notifications when sex offenders move in close to you. Taking the time to establish a notification system through SeekVerify is a no-brainer in my opinion. You will never have to worry about keeping up with your state’s registry, because all relevant changes will be sent directly to you. The next time an offender moves into your neighborhood, you will know it as soon as the registry is updated and you can alert all your family members.
There is so much important information SeekVerify can provide you with, but it is up to you what gets sent to your provided email address. The whole system is customizable, and it does not take long to implement. Even if it did, you will gain that time back by never having to access the state’s sex offender registry again. You can receive notifications for up to 4 addresses of any registered sex offender activity within a 5 mile radius.
Sam Hadfield
You do realize that not all sex offenders are sexual predators right? Some are people that were just unfortunate enough to get caught urinating in public. Some are minors that had sex with other minors. To label them all together is wrong and some people just get. Some people can’t get paSt teo sex offender status
You are right Juanita, but in this article (and this website in general) we focus mainly on “registered sex offenders” that have been convicted for a sex-related crime.