Chelmsford 2018 Halloween Sex Offender Safety Map

CHELMSFORD, MA – Before kids go out trick or treating on Halloween, fall is a good time to take inventory of who is living in your neighborhood.

Chelmsford has 11 registered sex offenders listed as living or working in town. Six of them are level three sex offenders and five are level two sex offenders. The Sex Offender Registry Board classifies levels two and three sex offenders as moderate to high risk, respectively.

In Massachusetts, sex offenders are ineligible to live in public housing and may not work as ice cream vendors, but keep the vast majority of their rights. These offenders are not wanted by police, and using this information to harass, discriminate against, or harm these individuals is against the law.

Pins on the map represent addresses of offenders convicted of sex crimes. Click on the pins, and you will see more information pop up, including the registered sex offender's name, address, current age, convictions, a physical description and aliases.

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.

Source: Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry

Patch graphic