Sarasota Registered Sex Offenders List: 2020 Safety Map

SARASOTA, FL — Fall is a good time to take a closer look at who’s living in your neighborhood. Sarasota has 299 registered sex offenders living in the city, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Sexual Offenders and Predators database.

Residents can search specific neighborhoods for a list of registered sexual offenders and predators using this online database here. According to the FDLE, addresses of registered sexual predators, transient offenders, transient predators and multiple offenders are also included on the neighborhood sex offenders map.

When accessing the FDLE database, go to "Neighborhood Search" and enter the address, city and zip code of the area you’re interested in. You can choose for your search to extend 1 to 5 miles from the provided address. Registered sexual offenders living in this area will show up in results.

You also have two viewing options to choose from: a map of the locations of registered sex offenders or a list of their names with mugshots and addresses. Pins on the map represent addresses of offenders convicted of sex crimes. Roll your cursor over the pins, and you will see more information pop up, including the registered sex offender's name, address, date of birth and convictions.

Using the Sarasota Police Department Headquarters, 2099 Adams Lane, Sarasota, as a starting point, the FDLE database indicates there are 277 registered sex offenders within a five-mile radius. That’s down from 284 when Patch ran the same search last year.

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.

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."

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• Why Patch Publishes Sex Offender Registry Maps