Understanding Sex Offender Registries & Neighborhood Safety

If you are worried about the safety of your neighborhood and want to know if criminals live there, take to the Internet, where a simple search can tell you if convicted felons reside nearby. The only type of criminal you will find this way is sex offenders, since they must register their addresses with the state. Other criminals are not required to register their whereabouts once they have completed the sentence for their crime.

Instructions

• 1

  Open an Internet browser on your computer and log on to Family Watchdog (see References).

• 2

  Enter your address, city, state and ZIP code in the search field on the left of the screen. Select Enter once you filled in this information.

• 3

  Wait for the map to load up. Zoom in on the map to your neighborhood.

• 4

  Look for boxes on the map. Boxes with an "X" designates a school. Red boxes mark the home of someone with offenses against children, yellow means rape, blue means sexual battery and green means other offense.

• 5

  Click on the box of the person you want to read about. The screen will load so you can see the offender's photo and learn about his crime.