Des Moines 2018 Halloween Sex Offender Map

DES MOINES, IA — 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. Des Moines has about 444 registered sex offenders listed that have a specified address, according to city-data.com. The site created a map of their addresses using data obtained from the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.

You can find the map here. Green dots on the map represent addresses of registered sex offenders. If you click on them, a box will pop up that has the offender's name, known aliases, address and age, as well as any tattoos they have. You can also click a link within the box that will take you to the offender's page, where you can see their photo and crime. Some of the offenses you'll see include unlawful sexual contact, indecent exposure, sexual exploitation of a minor, sexual assault, sexual abuse and kidnapping.

Registered sex offenders are often not allowed to pass out candy on Halloween and can not appear in a Halloween costume or other child-centered holiday character, such as Santa and the Easter Bunny, in public. Registered sex offenders, however, are sometimes allowed to wear a Halloween costume in their home.

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.

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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