19 Sex Offenders In Oak Forest: 2020 Safety Map

OAK FOREST, IL — Fall is a good time to take an inventory of who is living in your neighborhood. Oak Forest has 19 registered sex offenders living in the city, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry.

All registered sex offenders have known addresses in Oak Forest, according to state police. One Oak Forest sex offender, James Murphy, is listed as being incarcerated.

Here is where sex offenders are registered as living in Oak Forest. 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.

In Illinois, registered sex offenders are prohibited from passing out candy on Halloween. They may not appear in a Halloween costume or other child-centered holiday character, such as Santa or the Easter Bunny, in public. Registered sex offenders, however, may wear a Halloween costume in their home, according to the Illinois Sex Offender Registry.

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.

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