Know if There's a Registered Sex Offender in Your Neighborhood

If you're a parent, you know that finding out who might be a threat in your neighborhood is part of providing a safe environment for your child. Megan's Law, passed in 2004, requires law enforcement officials to make information regarding sex offenders available to the public. If you want to find out whether a sex offender lives in your neighborhood, you can easily look up the information on a public sex offender registry. Read on to learn more about how to know if there's a registered sex offender in your neighborhood.

Steps

Using the National Sex Offender Search

1. Go to the US Department of Justice National Sex Offender Public Website. You can find the website at www.nsopw.gov/en-US. Every sex offender is required to register with the US Department of Justice, and this website is a database of every registered sex offender in the US.
2. Locate the National Sex Offender Quick Search box and click "Search by location." You'll see the link on the right column of the website.
3. Agree to the conditions of use. Read the conditions of use, which warns against using the information you glean from the website to threaten or intimidate anyone. If you agree to the conditions (which you must do in order to gain access to the site), check the box marked "I agree and acknowledge the terms of NSOPW."
   • You can read your state or territory's individual conditions of use by finding it on the list of states and territories under the general conditions of use.
4. Enter the code in the box and press "continue." This will take you to the search page.
5. Decide how you want to search for registered sex offenders. You have several choices available:
   • You can choose the "Search by address radius" option to see a list of sex offenders in your neighborhood. Just enter your address and the radius you want to see. Only the states that have provided geographic coordinates to NSOPW are included in this search. If you don't see yours, you can use a different website.
   • If you want to search an individual person's name, you can enter his or her first and last name and press "search."
   • You can also do an advanced search for an individual by entering the first and last name as well as the address.

Using the Family Watchdog Search

1. Go to the Family Watchdog website. You can find it at www.familywatchdog.us/. This is a free service that allows you to see a map of your neighborhood with markings indicating where sex offenders live.
2. Enter your address in the "Find Offenders" box. It's in the lefthand column. Enter your street address and your city, state and zip code.
3. Click a square on the map that appears. You'll see a map with tiny squares indicating places where sex offenders live. Click on a square to see more information about each offender.
4. Click the "List" tab to see a clickable list of sex offenders by name, address, and distance from your address. By clicking the name of an offender, you can see details: photo, alias, convictions, description and map. You may print the profiles of offenders for your own use.
5. Consider signing up for notifications that a sex offender has moved to your area. The Family Watchdog site will send you free notifications when someone new moves in. Click the "sign up now" button in the upper left corner of the homepage to sign up.

Using the National Predator Database

1. Go to the National Predator Database website. You can find it at www.nationalpredatordatabase.com/. This site allows you to search for predators by name, location, offense, and observation.
2. Enter your address in the search boxes. Include your street address, city, state, and zip code. When you press search, a map showing sexual predators in your neighborhood will appear.
3. Click on the dots to find out more information. Each dot represents a sexual predator living in your neighborhood. Click to find out more about the person's offense.

Tips

• If you want to find out more information about a specific sex offender, contact the registry official in the area where you live.

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