How do I find sex offenders in my neighborhood?

With Halloween approaching this Wednesday, it is imperative that parents are aware of the potential threats to their children, so they can avoid the home and contact with sex offenders.

It’s important to know that every Sheriff’s Office in the United States has links to help locate registered sex offenders.

We will be taking our audience step by step to navigate through this important, but somewhat complicated process, to locate sexual offenders near the home’s of our viewers.

We searched the area near the WINK News broadcast center.

The first step we took was going to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office website. Then, we searched, “sex offenders,” where we selected the first link. That took us to a page, which was titled, “See if there are registered sex offenders living near me.”

We followed the link to the website by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Upon reaching the website, we went to the top of it and clicked the red button titled, “offender search.”

Then, we scrolled down to the link for “neighborhood search.”

There we inserted the station’s address and we accessed our results.

The state of Florida has rules in place that will decrease the chance of contact with sex offenders on Oct. 31.

The people with this designation are not allowed to give out candy or other treats. To avoid confusion, their porch lights must be off and the blinds closed.

The Florida Department of Corrections has additional strict instructions for sex offenders on Halloween.

For instance, sex offenders in Florida are prohibited from putting up outside decorations to attract children nor can they dress in costumes or have on masks. Sex offenders are also not allowed to attend Halloween parties where children will be present for the festivities.

These strict instructions must be followed or the sex offender will be arrested immediately. They are an addition to normal terms and conditions as written in the Florida Statutes.

But recent data from the U.S. Department of Justice has found that it is unlikely for a child to be a victim of a predator on Halloween.

Strangers who sexually abused children only happened in 7 percent of cases. Most studies show that the sexual abuser is a family member or close acquaintance, more than 90 percent of the time.

However, even a small chance of a child being sexually abused, especially on a day when they are coming in contact with many strangers, is a risk that can petrify parents — and justifiably so.

We encourage our audience to take these precautions for a safe and enjoyable Halloween.