60,000 sexual predators missing in U.S.

March 6 , 2007

Adapted from the Valley News Dispatch

Annual registration is required for 10 years for people convicted of kidnapping, luring a child, indecent assault, incest and promotion of a child for prostitution and six similar crimes.

Rape convictions and convictions for eight other types of crime, including those convicted of a sex crime while classified as a sex offender, are sexually violent predators who must report quarterly to state police for life.

Offenders must file a report with state police within 48 hours after changing their address, workplace or school they are attending, or after leaving prison.

Sexual offenders moving into the state or leaving the state must notify state police within 48 hours.

States don't know where to find at least 60,000 sexual predators because the offenders fail to report their address to police, a national children's advocate said.

"We're not surprised," said the executive director of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. "The (Associated Press) did a study in California that showed that about 40,000 of the 100,000 required to report don't register."

Not having an updated location on a sexual predator can lead to tragedy.

On Feb. 23, 2005, 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was kidnapped by a predator who wasn't living at the address he gave police in Florida.

"The police looked for him when she disappeared, but they couldn't find him," the executive director said. "Three days later she was found dead."

The center has created a special unit that will check a variety of databases, find the missing offender's location, and give the information to the U.S. Marshals Service.

So far, the center has found about 850 people that way, the director said.

Last fall, U.S. Marshals and local police and constables rounded up nearly 11,000 absconders across the country.

The director said that the goal of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is to help police and the public, "not to inflame the public." He emphasized that the public shouldn't harass sexual offenders and predators who serve their time and report as required.

"There is a very delicate balance. They have rights, too," he said. "But parents need to watch and get information about where offenders live. The courts tell us registration is regulatory, not punitive."