Do sex offenders actually have to call to your house to announce their status? Has it happened to you?

33 comments

1. I’m not sure what you mean? Call our house to tell us that they are a sex offender before they come over?

2. I have never had this experience but I believe they don’t call you personally.

   Usually you get a notification in the mail from your city. At least where I am from.

3. No, we get letters in the mail if they move in within a certain radius.

4. Haven’t heard of that. As far as I know, they need to register with the police, so we can find them on a website that lists where they live and what they did.

5. Awkward solution for obscene phone callers.

6. Where I live they have to tell everyone with children. My neighbor growing up got charged as a child sex offender. He got caught sleeping in the same bed as one of his daughters friends at her sleepover. He had to go door to door and tell everyone he was on a list. It was up to him if he wanted to tell us why.

7. Only ever seen this in movies, never heard of it happening in real life. The city I live in has a website where you can look up sex offenders near you but I’ve never seen the point. Like, I’m a parent, but my kid is far more at risk from adults already in his life than he is from some random guy who lives a mile away that I’ll probably never see or interact with.

8. I have seen this done on TV shows, but never had it happen in real life. We used to get flyers when a sex offender moved into the neighborhood, but now all that info is on the towns website.

9. Each state gets to set their own criminal laws but I’ve never heard of that. Sex offender registries are (generally) open to the public and people are free to look up the offenders who live in their neighborhood if they wish to do so.

10. Not in Chicago, but there is a website where you can find the registered sex offenders in your neighborhood.

11. No. I’ve seen posters up before if there’s a registered sex offender in the area. There are also websites where you can find where sex offenders are in your area.

12. Sex offender reporting varies greatly by state. Sex offenders have to report to their Sheriff’s office or Probation Officers when they move but they aren’t the ones who report it to the neighbors. Many states have very broad rules on “reporting.” For instance some states it’s just a facebook message on the PD page.

    Edit: correction.

13. Never heard of that. Just know they register and you can look up who’s in your neighborhood. I just did that last week actually. Never can be too safe. Always good to know who’s around.

14. Depends on the state

15. We have the sex offender shuffle for a reason

16. In all jurisdictions, sex offenders who have registration requirements need to register with the local law enforcement agency. They need to re-register when they move at their new address, typically 5-14 days after moving. Some jurisdictions require that they de-register from the jurisdiction they lived in after moving, as well.

    If someone is homeless, which an outrageously huge population of sex offenders are, then they usually have to register significantly more often and pay significantly more to register. Most people charged with Failure to Register are homeless. Public housing is unavailable to registered sex offenders, many areas are prohibited for them to live in due to proximity to parks/schools, and many homeless shelters refuse to allow them to use the shelter as their registered address.

    As far as notice the public gets, addresses of sex offenders are public information. Beyond that, what is done with it is usually in the hands of the local sheriff or over-invasive community organizations. So you might get a letter telling you when a sex offender moves in next door, you might not. That would depend where you live. And as far as homeless sex offenders, you are unlikely to be notified of their presence due to their transient nature.

17. I have never been informed of the 1 sex offender in my neighborhood. I only know about her from the news reports when she did what she did and from the sex offender maps that my state puts out.

18. I’ve never heard of that. I think we got a letter from law enforcement once about it—when I had small kids in the home. Like someone said—you can go on a website and look, though, at all those around you—see their mugshot and limited info about their record.

19. Not in New Jersey, at least I have never seen it. Certainly not a federal law stating that.

20. No, not here in Kentucky that I’ve ever seen. You have to look up the registry.

21. When a sex offender moved onto my block about 5 years ago, the police put a flyer in everyone’s door that had his criminal history and an advisement that he lived at such an address. There was a warning that you were not allowed to harass him in any way.

    Not sure if he still lives on my street anymore, and I never saw the guy around.

22. In my state, they have to update their address on a publicly available list, but don’t have to actually go and tell people.

23. I just get a postcard about it

24. I don’t believe so. I found out accidentally that one lives in my subdivision 🙁

25. No. Big Lebowski?

26. I’m in Florida, have lived in a neighborhood with over 30 registered offenders within a 5 mile radius of my home, and never not one time had someone knock on the door, send a letter, or have police come by. Had to look up the registry myself to know who was around me.

27. No. I have two grand-daughters. I regularly check the nys sex offender registry, and search by the county i live in. Any sex offender who is registered, is shown in a recent headshot and named, charge convicted of, a brief narrative to describe the nature of the crime ( *actual sexual intercourse with 4yr old male etc* ) and assessed level of risk.
    Edited to remove wrong word

28. Idk no one ever knocks on my door

29. Honestly, I never really cared to look it up. The VAST MAJORITY of people who should be on the registry, aren’t. So whether or not there’s a RSO in your neighborhood, just know that there is likely a predator (and more than one at that) who has never been caught for their sex crimes in your neighborhood. After all, most victims of such crimes never report it to the authorities.

30. About 20 years ago our cul de sac received notice of a pedophile moving in. Street had multiple kids in every house. They did not last long there.

31. I don’t receive calls to my house – who has a house phone anymore.

32. No, this is not a real thing and never was.

33. I know there is one around the corner. Non-pedo, I think, his registration mentions rape but not underage. He’s lived here longer than I have, but there isn’t any regular “still here” notice that I’ve ever gotten.