Ambler-Whitpain-Lower Gwynedd Area 2020 Sex Offender Safety Map

AMBLER, PA — The greater Ambler area, including the borough, Lower Gwynedd, and Whitpain, has nine registered sex offenders living in it, according to the Pennsylvania Megan's Law Sex Offender Registry.

Of those, one is a "Tier 3" offender. These highest level convicts are required to report to local authorities four times per year. Most local offenders are Tier 1 or Tier 2, meaning they must appear before local authorities once or twice per year.

It's important to note that this list does not include registered sex offenders who work in the area.

Here is where sex offenders are registered as living in Ambler. 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.

This is not private information. The Megan's Law database and information on local offenders is publicly available online.

In some states, registered sex offenders are prohibited from passing out candy on Halloween. This is not the case in Pennsylvania, as the state does not restrict offender activities on the holiday.

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.

The Association for the Treatment of Sex Abusers, a nonprofit organization for clinicians, researchers, educators, law enforcement and court officials involved in sexual abuse cases, cautions that children do not face a heightened risk during the Halloween season.

"There is no change in the rate of sexual crimes by non-family members during Halloween," the group says. "That was true both before and after communities enacted laws to restrict the activities of registrants during Halloween. The crimes that do increase around Halloween are vandalism and property destruction, as well as theft, assault, and burglary."

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