Homefacts says there are 21.63 sex offenders per 10,000 people in Illinois, slightly more than last year’s 21.33 per 10,000 people, both of which are more dense than the national average of 14.3 offenders per 10,000 people.

The registry is governed by Illinois laws 730 ILCS 152/115 (a) and (b), which mandates that the Illinois State Police maintain a database of where registered sex offenders live throughout the state. Offenders who have been convicted of committing or attempting to commit certain crimes (or found not guilty by reason of insanity) must register upon their release from prison and check in with authorities about their where they live and what they’re up to. (Of course, there might be other people living in communities who aredangerous who are not registered, and in the U.S. there are nearly 22,000 registered sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown.)

Those crimes include acts such as:

  • Sexual Exploitation of a Child
  • Child Pornography
  • Criminal Sexual Assault
  • Criminal Sexual Abuse
  • Permitting Sexual Abuse of  a Child

From the Illinois Sex Offender Registry website:

A sex offender must register in person annually for a period of 10 years. The 10-year registration period will start upon conviction for those offenders sentenced to probation. Those offenders sentenced to the Illinois Department of Corrections, another state’s department of corrections, or federal corrections must register for 10 years from final parole, discharge, or release.

There are some areas in Illinois in which more registered sex offenders live than others.

Here are the 10 counties with the most sex offenders per 10,000 people:

  1. Pulaski 37.66
  2. Marion 36.05
  3. Edgar 35.65
  4. Peoria 32.52
  5. Alexander 31.91
  6. Union 27.53
  7. DeWitt 27.17
  8. Massac 26.68
  9. Franklin 26.06
  10. Clay 26.03

Here are the 10 counties with the fewest sex offenders per 10,000 people:

  1.  DuPage 4.19
  2. Monroe 4.22
  3. Clinton 4.47
  4. Kendall 5.0
  5. Brown 5.79
  6. Calhoun 5.92
  7. Kane 5.93
  8. Will 6.12
  9. Jersey 6.56
  10. McHenry 6.98

The state’s biggest county, Cook County, has 8.31 offenders per 10,000 people.

Check out this map of the counties with the most and least sex offenders per capita:

sex offenders map 2015

 

 

 

NEXT ARTICLE: The 25 most dangerous Illinois cities

 

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