1,150 SEX OFFENDERS HERE ABOUT 10 PERCENT OF THEM HAVEN'T REGISTERED WITH POLICE.Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer Nearly 1,150 registered sex offenders live in San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. communities, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a new state Web site that has drawn more than 14 million hits since its launch last week. State and local law enforcement officials say the decision to create the Web site is validated by the public's enthusiasm for the information and and they hope it will help find sex offenders who have violated registration requirements. ``We're very pleased with the response. So far, we're doing very well,'' said Mariam Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer William Westwood "Bill" Lockyer (born May 8, 1941) is the current State Treasurer of California. Prior to this, he served as California's Attorney General and head of the Department of Justice for the U.S. state of California. . The Web site lists one-third of Valley sex offenders as violating registration laws, but Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. police dispute that, saying the figure is closer to about 10 percent, or 150 people. The state site lists 1,146 registered offenders in the Valley: 185 in Van Nuys, 137 in North Hollywood and 109 in Sylmar. But the site does not include some 22,000 registered offenders statewide for such crimes as incest, spousal rape spousal rape Forensic medicine Rape by a husband or common law partner, a violent crime and a component of battered wife syndrome. See Assault, Date rape, Domestic violence, Rape. , child pornography Child pornography is the visual representation of minors under the age of 18 engaged in sexual activity or the visual representation of minors engaging in lewd or erotic behavior designed to arouse the viewer's sexual interest. and misdemeanor sex crimes. These offenders are barred by law from having their identities made public. If they were counted, the Valley's total would be closer to 1,500, according to Detective Diane Webb of the Registration Enforcement and Compliance Team (REACT) of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau Sex Crimes Unit. And while the Megan's Law Megan's Laws are named for Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old girl from New Jersey who was sexually assaulted and murdered in 1994 by a neighbor who, unknown to the victim's family, had been previously convicted for Sex Offenses against children. Web site lists 377 of Valley offenders - or 33 percent - as in violation of their release terms, police say the numbers are skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data . Registered sex offenders listed as failing to update their home addresses are sometimes dead, deported or have been not been updated because of a lag time in reporting from local law enforcement to the state, Webb said. ``There's a lot less in violation than appears on the Web site,'' said Webb, who supervises a staff of seven detectives to monitor the Valley. Webb estimated the actual number of Valley offenders who have violated their release terms at about 10 percent and said all of those have warrants out for their arrest. Across the state, roughly 20 percent of registered sex offenders have failed to update their home address, Lockyer's office said. But Webb said the Web site is valuable because members of the public might identify an offender living in their neighborhood who is wanted by police. ``We do check up on (them), we do regular compliance sweeps,'' she said. ``With the Internet, we also rely on the public to keep us updated - we need the public to call us so that we can take action.'' When the state Department of Justice launched the database last week, so many viewers surfed its pages they bogged down the site. Between Wednesday and Sunday, the site got 14 million hits. Los Angeles County this fall beefed up its sex-offender Web site to include names of high-risk perpetrators. But the new state database goes a step further by not only listing the names and mug shots of 63,000 sexual offenders, but also including the home addresses of 33,500 of the most sexually violent predators. Under Megan's Law - named for a New Jersey girl raped and killed by a child molester Noun 1. child molester - a man who has sex (usually sodomy) with a boy as the passive partner paederast, pederast degenerate, deviant, deviate, pervert - a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior who moved across the street from her family home - information on registered sex offenders has been available to the public since 1996. Before Internet access See how to access the Internet. , residents could obtain Megan's Law information only from a sheriff's or police station. The Web site was authorized in September by the passage of AB 488, sponsored by Lockyer and state Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Bakersfield. Viewers can search the site by city, county, ZIP code or individual name, as well as the number of sex offenders near parks and schools. The site also offers tips on how parents can better protect their children. As of last October, Los Angeles County had 15,513 registered sex offenders, including 12,801 serious offenders and 89 high-risk offenders. While law enforcement officials say Megan's Law information helps parents know the whereabouts of sex offenders, they warn against vigilante vigilante n. someone who takes the law into his/her own hands by trying and/or punishing another person without any legal authority. In the 1800s groups of vigilantes dispensed "frontier justice" by holding trials of accused horse-thieves, rustlers and shooters, and action or public retribution. Not all registered offenders are dangerous, they said, adding that they served their time and must live somewhere. ``I would say (to my kids), don't even go to that house if that guy invites you in with milk or cookies,'' said Webb. ``Or, I know that guy, he goes to my church and he's sorry for what he's done and we believe he's not a danger.'' Most offenders, it turns out, have in some way known their victims. Many are family members. ``Obviously, we don't want to promote vigilantism Taking the law into one's own hands and attempting to effect justice according to one's own understanding of right and wrong; action taken by a voluntary association of persons who organize themselves for the purpose of protecting a common interest, such as liberty, property, or - or taking the law into their own hands,'' said Detective Chris Minor, operations deputy for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Family Crimes Unit. ``But if they know of a sex offender in their area, they can notify law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). .'' Dana Bartholomew, (818) 713-3730 dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): map Map: MEGAN'S LAW SOURCE: www.meganslaw.ca.gov Gregg Miller/Staff Artist |
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