States Not Tracking Sex Offenders, Group Says

The states have lost track of tens of thousands of convicted rapists, child molesters and other sex offenders who are supposed to be registered in databases, the child advocacy group Parents for Megan’s Law said.

After a recent report revealed that California authorities didn’t know the whereabouts of 33,000 sex offenders, the group surveyed all 50 states and the District of Columbia about their registries.

It said that states on average were unable to account for 24% of sex offenders. In 32 states, addresses for more than 77,000 offenders who were supposed to be registered were missing. In the other 18 states and the District of Columbia, which are responsible for 133,705 offenders, thousands of the ex-convicts may have disappeared, the group said.