Indianapolis 2018 Halloween Sex Offender Safety Info

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — Before kids go out trick or treating on Halloween, fall is a good time to take an inventory of who is living in your neighborhood. Indianapolis currently has more than 1,800 registered sex offenders listed on the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry.

To make it simple for parents across the state to protect their kids from dangers that may lurk in their neighborhoods or nearby, the Indiana Sheriffs' Association offers a handy, searchable database. That database contains the names, offenses and last known addresses of the state's registered sexual offenders and predators.

There are 12,051 offenders listed on the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry.

You may want to avoid trick or treating at these houses and apartments on Halloween, or merely be aware of who's living in your neighborhood during the rest of the year. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Indianapolis Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts and LIKE Indianapolis Patch on Facebook).

>>Fishers 2018 Halloween Sex Offender Safety Map

Law enforcement officials and researchers caution that the registries can play only 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.

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