Tracking Sex Offenders In Arlington

ARLINGTON, TX — The season of ghouls and goblins is upon us and while children clamor for the right costume and map their trick or treating route, child safety is always a top priority for parents. While the kids are out and about, law enforcement is making sure sexual predators and registered sex offenders are complying with the law.

Arlington has 543 sex offenders registered with the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to a Patch analysis done Oct. 9 of publicly available data. In Arlington, the ZIP code with the most registered sex offenders was 76010 with 94. The Arlington ZIP code with the most highest risk sex offenders was also 76010 with five, according to Patch's analysis.

To help ensure your child's safety, the Texas DPS website has recently updated the list of registered sex offenders in the Arlington area.

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.

Last year, the Board of Directors for the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) wrote a letter to Patch, objecting to the publication of maps using information from sex offender databases.

"Each year in the month prior to Halloween, articles warning parents about the danger posed at Halloween by persons who are on sex offender registries begin to appear. The Patch has been especially diligent and prolific in this regard, often printing maps with little dots showing where registered persons (aka "monsters," "bogeymen," "pedophiles," "ghouls") happen to live. For almost as many years, the scientific and academic communities have scorned and protested this practice. The reason they do so is simple: There is no heightened danger posed to children by those on registries in regard to Halloween or Halloween activities."

Patch's editor-in-chief explained the reason for publishing the annual maps in a 2017 editorial. (Read the full article here)

"We publish sex-offender maps because people deserve to know whether they live near someone like Turner who's preyed on the most vulnerable. Every state now has a sex-offender registry. While there is no national database, the U.S. Justice Department maintains a national public offender sex registry website with links to lists for every state and territory. Laws have been passed barring registered sex offenders from passing out candy on Halloween or attending community Halloween celebrations. In the days before kids trick-or-treat, many police and sheriff's departments visit their towns' sex offenders to remind them of the rules."

In addition:

"Statistics and research may show children are at no greater risk of falling victim to pedophiles on Halloween than any other time of the year, but that doesn't mean children are not vulnerable. Some studies show there's a one-in-four chance a convicted sex offender will run afoul of the law again, but most sex crimes go unreported, which means the true recidivism rate among molesters and child rapists cannot be known."

Patch has created a map you can use in conjunction with the DPS database that can show you were the sex offenders are in your neighborhood.

Individuals can also report suspicious or criminal activity with the mobile app, at www.iwatchtx.org or by calling 1-844-643-2251.

Related Coverage
Sex Offender Advocates Object To Local Mapping Of Registered Sex Criminals
Why Patch Publishes Sex Offender Registry Maps

(For more news and information like this, subscribe to Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

Photo via Google Maps