Sex Offenders In Phoenix: 2020 Registry

PHOENIX – There are 3,006 registered sex offenders living in Phoenix, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety's sex offender registry. That is 343 more than were registered in 2019.

All 3,006 offenders have known addresses in Phoenix (though some are registered under cross streets) and none are currently incarcerated. Of the 201 people considered noncompliant with state sex offender registry laws, 30 are from Phoenix.

Parents and others wanting to do a sex offender search will soon find that the Arizona Department of Public Safety's website redirects to icrimewatch.net to search for Arizona sex offenders. On icrimewatch.net, in the Offender Search dialog box, you can click on the City tab to look for local convicted sex predators. Just type in the city's name, then click on Search.

In the Search results list, you can then click on each convict's name and the next screen will show you that sex offender's aliases, age, gender, physical description and known address(es). It will also tell you the specific charges the offender was convicted on and in which state.

If you want to narrow down the search results, instead of initially clicking on City tab in the Offender Search dialog box, just click the first tab, In Your Area.

Then enter your home, business, school or other address and click on Search. Then your results will be listed again, and on the results screen, you can then narrow down your desired search radius using the "Radius:" dropdown menu.

Arizona does not impose any Halloween-specific restrictions on sex offenders, though 10 states have a "no candy" law in place.

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. 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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