How To See Where Sex Offenders Live This Halloween

MICHIGAN — Before kids go out trick or treating on Halloween, fall is a good time to take an inventory of who is living in your neighborhood. Michigan is in the top 5 states for the highest amount of registered sex offenders and Metro Detroit alone currently has thousands registered sex offenders listed on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry, many of whom are classified as sexual predators.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, there are over 3,600 registered sex offenders within the city of Detroit, the most in any metro Detroit region. Among the suburban cities, Dearborn has 388, Royal Oak has 109, while the Rochester/Rochester Hills area has over 500 combined.

You can use the map here to search your neighborhood if you don’t want your child knocking on the door of a sex offender. You can access the registered sex offender's name, address, current age, convictions, and the age of the offender and victim at the time of the offense.

You can also see which of the three tiers a sex offender is in, denoting the severity of their crime. Tier 1 is lesser charges like indecent exposure, while tier 2 is gross indecency or criminal sexual conduct involving victims over 13. Tier 3 means they’ve committed among the most serious crimes and includes victims under the age of 13.

Registered sex offenders are not prohibited from passing out candy on Halloween in Michigan unless they are on parole or probation. Some states have strict laws on sex offender behaviors during the season, including not wearing costumes outside of their home. Michigan is not one of those states.

Michigan now has the fourth-largest sex offender registry in the country, with more than 43,000 registrants on its database, which is more than the state of New York, according to the Detroit Free Press.

According to the state, registered sex offenders are required to update their address in the the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry within three days of moving to a new home.

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