Published Counts of the US Registries

Additional background for the SOLR report, Counting and Over-Counting the Registry

A look at various measures of the number of people on sex crime registries in jurisdictions of the United States.

The table below lists official and unofficial counts of the numbers of people on all the US state registries from 1998 to 2008, indicating discrepancies in the numbers, rates of change, and the “population frequency” of adult males on the registry.

See the Explanation and Sources of the Table below. For a discussion of the reliability of the numbers given here, see the related background report, Count Analysis of the US Registries.

Published Counts of the US Registries
Registry+199820012005200620072008Changes
(%)
DoJ, BJSNCMEC / PMLNCMEC%Men per+
          United States          
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website
6263,166403,112549,038
551,987
579,974
540,846
624,698
614,006
642,2840.219036 53,  37,   2,  11,   4
Alabama
Sex Offender Registry
4403,3385,619
5,616
6,070
5,193
9,085
8,943
9,7930.2190 659,  68,   0,  60,   9
Alaska
Sex Offender/Child Kidnapper Registry
3,5354,1072,934
2,873
2,920
4,219
4,375
3,032
3,1520.589  16,  -29,  23,   4,  -15
Arizona
Sex Offender Information
9,20011,50016,000
9,221
13,672
11,305
14,319
14,260
14,6220.2170  25,  10,   -1,  14,   2
Arkansas
Sex Offender Information
9582,9355,878
5,864
6,474
6,426
7,631
7,612
8,1490.3140 206, 100,  10,  18,   7
California
Megan's Law - Information on Registered Sex Offenders
78,00088,853103,000
102,616
108,650
86,846
111,349
87,706
113,6500.3130  14,  16,   -5,   2,  14
Colorado
Sex Offender Registry
4,3268,8048,409
8,381
9,269
9,125
9,585
11,369
9,9900.2200 104,   -5,  10,  14,   -5
Connecticut
Connecticut Sex Offender Registry
02,0303,785
3,785
3,699
4,106
4,725
4,725
4,9290.1290 n/a,  86,   3,  21,   4
Delaware
Delaware Sex Offender Central Registry
8001,6881,656
2,961
3,015
2,984
3,308
3,307
3,4450.4100 111,  37,  30,  10,   4
District of Columbia
Sex Offender Registry
50303621
624
636
641
696
696
7500.1320 506, 105,   3,   9,   8
Florida
Florida Sexual Offenders and Predators
9,00020,00034,531
33,990
38,766
35,910
39,780
43,590
47,5140.3160 122,  71,   9,  12,  14
Georgia
Georgia Sex Offender Registry
1,2004,5649,682
8,958
12,377
11,744
14,333
14,257
15,3870.2240 280, 104,  29,  19,   8
Hawaii
Online Covered Offender Search
1,0001,5002,000
1,957
2,000
2,170
2,500
2,382
2,5250.2220  50,  32,   5,  17,   3
Idaho
Idaho SOR
1,7101,7782,671
2,606
2,800
2,801
3,003
2,866
3,0770.2190   4,  48,   6,   5,   5
Illinois
Illinois Sex Offender Information
14,30016,55117,100
17,100
18,530
17,890
23,749
23,749
19,6950.2260  16,   3,   6,  30,  -17
Indiana
Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry
9,50011,6567,960
7,300
7,960
8,500
8,651
8,652
9,4530.1270  23,  -35,   8,   5,   9
Iowa
Iowa Sex Offender Registry
2,2403,9216,498
6,104
6,063
6,058
6,249
6,249
5,4990.2220  75,  61,   -4,   3,  -12
Kansas
KBI Registered Offender Website
1,2001,7943,136
3,563
4,090
3,981
4,764
4,791
5,9110.2190  50,  87,  20,  18,  24
Kentucky
Sex Offender Registry (SOR)
8002,0004,898
4,898
5,553
5,351
6,479
6,466
6,8940.2250 150, 145,  11,  19,   7
Louisiana
State Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry
3,4555,7086,611
6,591
6,975
6,921
7,516
7,502
7,9310.2210  65,  16,   5,   8,   6
Maine
Maine Sex Offender Registry
2754731,553
1,553
1,855
1,670
2,832
2,825
3,0500.2180  72, 228,  13,  60,   8
Maryland
Comprehensive Registered Sex Offender Website
4001,4004,253
4,253
4,340
4,340
4,669
4,668
4,6080.1490 250, 204,   2,   8,   -1
Massachusetts
Sex Offender Registry Board (SORB)
7,00417,00016,500
18,000
9,344
8,104
10,077
11,768
10,3150.2260 143,   1,  -49,  25,   -6
Michigan
Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry (PSOR)
19,00026,85031,045
36,233
39,671
38,032
41,472
41,145
42,0700.498  41,  25,  15,   6,   2
Minnesota
Minnesota Predatory Offender Registry
7,30010,61016,242
15,819
13,982
13,885
14,090
14,097
14,4450.3150  45,  51,  -13,   1,   2
Mississippi
Mississippi SOR
1,0631,5123,329
3,300
3,750
3,689
4,562
4,562
4,8830.2230  42, 119,  12,  23,   7
Missouri
Missouri Sex Offender Registry
2,8007,50010,754
10,719
11,234
11,031
7,324
7,324
6,9920.1340 168,  43,   4,  -34,   -5
Montana
Sexual or Violent Offender Registry
1,7392,0884,190
3,370
3,469
1,495
1,697
1,697
1,7430.2230  20,  81,  -34,  -32,   3
Nebraska
Nebraska Sex Offender Registry
6401,1202,042
2,041
2,233
2,189
2,610
2,605
2,7410.2260  75,  82,   8,  18,   5
Nevada
Nevada Sex Offender Registry
1,5002,5199,718
4,734
5,624
5,573
6,248
6,082
6,3860.3160  68, 187,  -23,  10,   4
New Hampshire
Registration of Criminal Offenders
1,5002,1683,100
3,100
3,336
3,250
3,716
3,706
3,8960.3140  45,  43,   6,  13,   5
New Jersey
New Jersey Sex Offender Internet Registry
5,1517,49510,443
10,464
11,500
11,003
11,566
11,566
12,0340.1290  46,  39,   8,   3,   4
New Mexico
Sex Offender Registry
4501,1711,802
1,864
1,985
1,915
2,286
2,286
2,2520.1350 160,  57,   6,  17,   -1
New York
Sex Offender Management
7,20011,57521,021
20,969
23,688
22,209
25,599
25,536
26,7400.1290  61,  81,   9,  11,   5
North Carolina
North Carolina Offender Registry
2,2005,92210,864
10,244
9,704
9,228
10,883
12,140
11,5160.1310 169,  78,  -10,  22,   0
North Dakota
Sex Offender Web Site
683766920
801
919
946
1,462
1,037
1,1200.2240  12,  12,   8,  34,  -10
Ohio
Protecting Ohio’s Families
1,2945,42313,471
13,485
15,973
13,750
16,072
17,669
17,5340.2270 319, 149,  10,  14,   4
Oklahoma
Offenders
2,3034,0201,357
5,507
5,120
5,118
5,422
9,633
5,7000.2250  75,  -15,  49,  47,  -24
Oregon
Sex Offender Inquiry System
7,4009,41016,056
15,259
13,460
17,160
19,000
18,873
14,4870.4110  27,  66,   -2,  24,  -23
Pennsylvania
Megan's Law Website
2,4004,5337,000
7,199
8,054
7,736
9,206
9,362
9,6980.1530  89,  57,  11,  18,   4
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Parole Board and Sex Offender Community Notification Unit
2731,4241,500
1,640
1,410
1,352
1,625
1,753
1,6000.1270 422,  10,  -12,  22,   -5
South Carolina
OffenderWatch
2,5004,9248,106
8,049
8,777
8,556
10,100
10,095
10,6140.2160  97,  64,   7,  17,   5
South Dakota
Sex Offender Registry
8001,1821,716
1,707
2,136
1,993
2,385
2,398
2,4670.3130  48,  45,  21,  16,   3
Tennessee
Sex Offender Registry
2,8004,5617,937
7,873
8,885
8,561
10,745
10,500
11,4630.2210  63,  73,  10,  22,   8
Texas
Texas Public Sex Offender Registry
18,00029,49438,627
46,484
45,307
44,336
50,599
50,559
51,8980.2180  64,  44,   5,  13,   3
Utah
Sex & Kidnap Offender Registry Unit
4,7335,1928,000
8,000
8,182
6,904
6,644
7,181
6,9120.3140  10,  54,   -6,   -8,   -0
Vermont
Sex Offender Registry
8771,5092,229
2,226
2,229
2,340
2,442
2,443
2,4380.4110  72,  48,   3,   7,   -0
Virginia
Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry
6,6159,30613,240
13,211
12,891
12,152
13,881
15,000
14,8150.2210  41,  42,   -5,  15,   3
Washington
Offender Search
1,40015,30418,557
18,557
19,242
18,790
19,798
19,798
20,0160.3130 993,  21,   2,   4,   1
West Virginia
Sex Offender Registry
6009502,200
2,220
2,450
2,500
2,800
2,800
2,8210.2270  58, 133,  12,  13,   1
Wisconsin
Sex Offender Registry
10,00011,99917,348
17,169
18,714
17,887
19,674
19,629
20,2400.4110  20,  44,   6,   7,   3
Wyoming
Sex Offender Registry
552682929
929
991
981
1,115
1,115
2,4240.591  24,  36,   6,  13, 117
Territories and possessions. For consistency among source, the national totals are for the 50 states plus DC, and do not include numbers published by NCMEC for Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
 

Explanation and Sources of the Table

This section explains the data presented in the above table, Published Counts of the US Registries, and discusses their sources and discrepancies..

The Registry column provides link to the official sex crime registry websites of the United States and its fifty states and the District of Columbia, along with the title of each site.

The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website for the United States serves as a portal to information provided by the individual jurisdictions. It provides individual conditions of use for each jurisdiction, which may include links to various parts of their websites, but it does not provide links to the sites of the individual registries themselves, which would facilitate searching their databases directly. Those registries often provide more information than the national site.

Most of the links to the registries were obtained from the FBI’s National/State Sex Offender Registry list. However, many of the links on that page were not correct as of September 2008 and have been replaced with links that work as of that time. The titles were obtained directly from each site.

The first “+” column indicates registries that are not just for sex crimes, but that also include people convicted of certain violent, nonsexual crimes. A check mark is given for a jurisdiction for which this is the case and the row for the national registry indicates how many jurisdictions do this. The primary source of this information is a notation (pink box) on News & Noteworthy: Articles Concerning Sex Offender Issues by Arthur Parrish, 2006. To the five listed there, Alaska has been added based on initial analysis, but more work on this issue is needed.

The dated columns provide information from various sources at various times. The first two columns provide the most recent official government figures. Since the federal government has stopped issuing this data, the task of compiling the numbers has been taken up by two citizen’s groups, Parents for Megan’s Law (PML) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). See more information on them below.

The two DoJ, BJS columns give official counts published by the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, in Summary of State Sex Offender Registries: Automation and Operations, 1998 and Summary of State Sex Offender Registries, 2001. The number for Connecticut was zero in 1998 because registries were maintained locally and there was no information available at the state level. The figure for Massachusetts in 2001 is an estimate that was indicated in a footnote in the DoJ document. Here it is included in the table and in the national total.

There has been no official update of the government data since then. As of September 2008, official information about the registries from the BJS consists of a brief entry in Criminal Record Systems Statistics that says the individual states and other jurisdictions maintain their own registries and submit data to the national registry. No statistics are provided.

The NCMEC / PML columns give counts stated for 2005 through 2007 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Parents for Megan’s Law. The top number in each cell is from NCMEC; the bottom one from PML. Many of these pairs of numbers are very different, which is indicated by the appearance of the numbers. Red text means that the two numbers differ by 10 percent or more; bold face is used if the difference is at least 20 percent. Black bold face indicates that one number is more than double the other. NCMEC reports that its numbers are obtained by a telephone survey of the registry offices in each jurisdiction. PML does not state the method used to obtain its numbers.

The 2008 columns provide information based on 2008 figures from NCMEC. (As of September 2008, PML had not published numbers for 2008 yet.)

The % column gives the percentage of the general population that is on the registry, according to 2008 NCMEC data. This number is calculated from census data (2007 Statistical Abstract, US Census Bureau) and agrees with “per 100,000” data provided with the 2008 NCMEC data.

The Men per column gives the number of adult males in the general population for every adult male on the registry, i.e., the number of men per registered man. The national number of 190 means that approximately one out of every 190 adult men in the United States is on the registry, according to the NCMEC data. This is technically called the “population frequency” among adult males. It is obtained by dividing the adult male population by an estimate of the adult male portion of the registry count and rounding to two significant digits. (See the related background report, Count Analysis of the US Registries for the adjustment of this figure to 220 men per registered man based on analysis of overcounting of the registries.)

Adult male populations were obtained from census data (State Single Year of Age and Sex Population Estimates: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006 - RESIDENT, obtained from State population datasets, US Census Bureau, giving 2006 estimates for each jurisdiction broken down by sex and age).

The estimated adult male portion of the registry counts were calculated by multiplying the counts by 90 percent. This percentage estimate was decided as follows. Of seven jurisdictions for which a database of all people on the public registry website was obtained in the comparative analysis, two included date of birth and gender in all records obtained. These were Georgia, with 14,307 people, and Kansas, with 3,821. Among these, the age/gender breakdown was: 18 and over, 17,480 males and 512 females, under 18, 133 males and 3 females. The proportion of males 18 and over was thus 96 percent for the publicly disclosed registrants in those two jurisdictions. Because other jurisdictions may have different age and gender distributions, and because there may similarly be a different distribution among the records not disclosed to the public, a more conservative estimate of 90 percent was used.

Frequencies less than 200 are shown in red. Those that are below 100 are in bold red. These indicate jurisdictions in which there are less than 100 men for every adult male on the registry, according to NCMEC’s data.

The second “+” column indicates registries that include people who have been deported, incarcerated or have moved to another jurisdiction. A check mark is given for a jurisdiction for which this is the case and the row for the national registry indicates how many jurisdictions do this. The source of this information is the NCMEC map for 2008.

The Changes column indicates the percentage change in populations within each jurisdiction from each count to the next. For 2005 through 2007, the average of the NCMEC and PML numbers are used in the calculation. Declines are given in red. Changes greater than 10 percent are in bold face.

Count Source Summary

Published counts of the US registries are summarized and linked in the following table.

Sources of Published Counts
YearUS DoJNCMECPML
1998Summary of State Sex Offender Registries: Automation and Operation 1998   
2001Summary of State Sex Offender Registries, 2001   
2005  Registry map, May 2005 () Megan’s Law Report Card
2006  Registry map, March 8, 2006 () (2006 column of table on that page. Data not included in table above.)
Registry map, October 17, 2006 ()
2007  Registry map, May 16, 2007 () (Data not included in table above.)
Registry map, November 15, 2007 ()
2008  Registry map, July 17, 2008 ()  

NCMEC map of sex crime registries in the USA

NCMEC. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children publishes once or twice a year a map showing the registered populations for the 50 states, DC, and various US territories and possessions. The latest map is available on their website (linked from their Sex Offenders page), but archived copies of prior maps are linked in the above Sources table.

The NCMEC data are obtained by a phone survey of the registry offices of the individual jurisdictions.

Since 2007, the NCMEC has included counts for US territories and possessions on its maps. These data are not included in the national totals in the above table in order to keep those totals consistent with data from other sources. The totals shown on the NCMEC maps since 2007 do include those additional amounts.

The NCMEC is something of a quasi-government agency because it was established by an act of Congress and is granted official duties, privileges, and funding alongside official government agencies by various legislation (such as Adam Walsh Act § 130, 143(b)(4) and (5), 151(a)(1), 629, 639(c)(2)(E)), while being managed as a private organization outside of government control.

PML. Parents for Megan’s Law publishes the Megan’s Law Report Card, which gives the number of people on the registry for the 50 states and the District of Columbia for 2005 through 2007. It does not, however, give any information about how or where the numbers were obtained or calculated. An e-mail requesting source information has not been answered.

There are two pairs of adjacent numbers in PML’s data for 2007 that appear to be accidentally switched with each other and those errors have been corrected in the table. To wit, the number given for Delaware was 696, which has been switched with the adjacent number given for DC, 3307; New Hampshire’s number of 11,566 has been switched with the adjacent number for New Jersey, 3,706.

 



Page posted on September 7, 2008, updated January 28, 2009.
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