People need to be motivated to learn about the location of sex offenders, according to state officials.
The Arkansas sex offender registry is the top weapon to limit repeat offenders, said Paula Stitz, manager of the Arkansas sex offender registry.
“The registry works,” Stitz said. “These people tend to work in the dark. We’re shinning a light in the dark corners.”
The federal Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offenders Registration Act of 1994 set up guidelines for states to establish sex offender registries. Before 1994, only a handful of states required offenders to register their addresses with police. Now all 50 states do, as does the District of Columbia.
Not all of the people on the registry are dangerous to children, Stitz said.
“One of the scariest men on the registry has never touched a child,” Stitz said. “We think he has raped about 20 women, though.”
Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly Klaas was kidnapped and murdered in 1993, recommends three changes to help reduce repeat offenses.
First, keep the predators behind bars, Klaas said. Second, keep the registry more up to date and make sure states keep in better contact when an offender moves from one state to another. Finally, expand the use of GPS, or global positioning system devices, to keep up with the location of offenders at all times.
Offenders move constantly, Stitz said, trying to keep ahead of the registry. The public is the best help to make sure offenders live where they claim they live.
“The more eyes watching the better,” Stitz said. “We get calls constantly from people saying some offender is not living with his parents anymore. He’s moved in with a girlfriend, they say.”
The state has registered 9,559 sex offenders since 1997, Stitz said. Of those, 54 have been deported, 414 have died, 1,542 have moved out of state and 1,297 are in jail, Stitz said.
“We have 351 who are lost,” Stitz said. “We don’t know where they are.”
The Web sites of Benton and Washington counties sheriff’s offices have links to maps with the location of sex offenders. Entering an address will pop up a map of surrounding offenders.
The state Arkansas Crime Information Center Web site also has a database with the locations of sex offenders. People can register an address with the center and an e-mail will be sent out when a sex offender moved into the area.