Tuckahoe 2019 Halloween Sex Offender Safety Map

TUCKAHOE, NY — Before the kids go out trick or treating on Halloween, it is a good time to take inventory of who is living in your neighborhood. There are two sex offenders living in Tuckahoe as of October 2019, according to the New York Sex Offender Registry.

The Division of Criminal Justice Services is responsible for maintaining the registry, which provides New Yorkers information about sex offenders living in their communities. The DCJS updates information regularly, but information can change quickly.

Information is often provided by offenders themselves as required by law.

There are three levels of sex offenders — Level 1 (low risk of re-offense), Level 2 (medium risk of re-offense) and Level 3 (high risk of re-offense); risk level is set by a judge after a court hearing. By law, only Level 2 and Level 3 sex offenders are listed on the public directory.

During the annual Halloween celebration, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision imposes special conditions on sex offenders under its supervision. These special conditions are a proactive measure designed to protect New York's children and the community during trick-or-treating.

Halloween conditions require that sex offenders remain indoors at home on Halloween, not wear Halloween costumes, not open their doors to trick-or-treaters, and not have Halloween candy in their possession.

On Halloween hundreds of Parole Officers across the state will conduct face-to-face home visits with sex offenders to ensure that they are complying with special rules put in place for them that day, officials said.

Operation Halloween was implemented in 2006. The program has been very successful and has generated significant positive response from communities across the state, officials said.

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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