Crime & Safety
1,065 Sex Offenders Live In DC As Of October 2020
Fall is a good time to take inventory of who is in your neighborhood, and how many registered sex offenders live in D.C.
WASHINGTON, DC — Fall is a good time to take an inventory of who is living in your neighborhood. In Washington, D.C., there are 1,065 registered sex offenders, according to the Metropolitan Police Departments Sex Offender Registry.
MPD publishes a list online of Class A and Class B sex offenders as a service to D.C. residents. Members of the public wishing to view the full sex officer registry can visit one of MPD's police district stations or the Sex Offender Registry Unit.
The number of registered Sex Offenders in each of the District's four quadrants breaks down as follows:
Find out what's happening in Washington DCfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
- Northeast - 378
- Northwest - 334
- Southeast - 446
- Southwest - 52
Law enforcement officials and researchers caution that the registries play a limited role in preventing child sexual abuse and stress that most perpetrators are known to the child.
The U.S. Department of Justice, which oversees the National Sex Offender Public Website, estimates that only about 10 percent of perpetrators of child sexual abuse are strangers to the child.
Find out what's happening in Washington DCfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Justice Department estimates 60 percent of perpetrators are known to the child but are not family members but rather family friends, babysitters, child care providers and others, and 30 percent of child victims are abused by family members. Nearly a quarter of the abusers are under the age of 18, the department estimates.
The Association for the Treatment of Sex Abusers, a nonprofit organization for clinicians, researchers, educators, law enforcement and court officials involved in sexual abuse cases, cautions that children do not face a heightened risk during the Halloween season: "There is no change in the rate of sexual crimes by non-family members during Halloween. That was true both before and after communities enacted laws to restrict the activities of registrants during Halloween. The crimes that do increase around Halloween are vandalism and property destruction, as well as theft, assault, and burglary."
RELATED:
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
