How do I check to see if there are sex offenders in an apartment building before I move there?

Which country are you in and which state? I would think that will determine the answer to this question.

Here

Oy…

@Mama_Cakes beat me to it.

Prepare to be shocked. Sex offenders are everywhere. And they’re not all predators.

I’m in New York.

Yeah we had some scuzzball on the street parallel from our current place, convicted of raping a child. thankfully he violated parole and is in jail again so there’s no one else near me that I can find online.

I’m not concerned much about the sex offenders who had sex with some 15 year old when they were 18.

I think everyone else on there is a possible predator and I refuse to live near them if I can help it. Can’t wait to live out in the country again where we had no one within several miles but I don’t make enough yet to move out of the city yet.

Thanks for your help. Hopefully there isn’t a rapist in the complex we’re looking into but we’ll see.

Duplicate.

@seekingwolf I think everyone else on there is a possible predator…

You’re entitled to think that, but it’s just not true. Well, it’s true if you believe every person is a potential predator you should avoid, but finding an apartment complex with no people in it might be difficult.

I live in South Carolina, which has half of the population of NYC alone. I live in a subdivision outside of the city surrounded by upper middle class families. Even here, there are sex offenders nearby. They’re everywhere.

I’d rather live next door to a registered sex offender that is not considered a predator than someone with a violent criminal history including burglaries or weapon charges, but those people aren’t required to register as a violent offender. Think about that.

In fact, I’d say sex offenders rarely re-offend in the same building/neighborhood they reside. They go elsewhere so they might not get caught. The sex offender a few blocks away is probably a bigger threat than the one living upstairs. And in order to find a place free of sex offenders for several blocks, you’ll need to move way out in the country.

All I’m saying is I’d think twice before making the number of see offenders nearby your deciding factor here.

You can also ask if the apartments do a criminal background check. Most apartments that allow children will deny a sexual predator to move in. We use to do background checks on all our tenants over the age of 18 who would be on the lease. If it came back denied, we were not told why but there are certain things that you can request agencies to check for and then let us know if they can or cannot move in.

I think child predator and arsonist where on that lists. Doesn’t mean we didn’t have people move boyfriends in or friends in without our knowledge. Also doesn’t mean that someone with a clean record couldn’t be a sex offender. It just means they haven’t been caught.

In my last apartment, they had a lot of policemen living in the apartments. It seems they gave them a discount and also allowed them to park their police vehicles in the parking lots. It always seemed they move these cops in the trouble spots. Slowly all the slugs in the bad buildings moved out.
So you could try moving to a place where a lot of cops seem to live.

@livelaughlove21

Unfortunately there is not a database for violent offenders who have been to jail for assault…because I’d judge it by that too.

Frankly, I don’t really care about these people or their sob stories or potential to get better. It’s too risky for me to actually give them a chance. I don’t see them as safe and never will. People who rape or sexually abuse others or even violent crimes (if I know about them) get no sympathy from me and I will never live near them if I can help it.

I really hope you aren’t trying to make me feel guilty for NOT wanting anything to do with someone who has sexually abused people. Because that’s sort of messed up.

I know I’m not alone in thinking like this and there’s nothing wrong with thinking like this.

@Pandora

The place my boyfriend and I are looking at allows children and also requires background checks (which we’ll pass) so that’s good to know (hopefully though if we go there, the apartment will be quiet so I don’t have to hear screaming children).

This place is also nextdoor (yes, next door) to a police dept. It’s good to know that the bad apples moved on with police presence. I’m hoping that the police nearby will deter the slugs. We’ve had 2–3 attempted robbed robberies on my street alone this year since I’ve been here, all by ghetto animals who don’t live hear but travel to places just minutes away to rob them. I’m just so done.

@seekingwolf I think you’re completely missing my point. I’m not sayings sex offenders don’t re-offend and I’m not saying that most (or even many) of them are great people that deserve a second chance. I’m not coming at this from an emotional point of view – it’s pure logic. Of course a lot of people say, “Oh, I refuse to live near a sex offender!” The fact of the matter, however, is that you can’t escape or even minimize the threat of potential sex offenders by basing your housing on the number of sex offenders listed nearby. Even if you could find an apartment with no registered sex offenders living in it, you’re no safer living there than you would be if a sex offender lived upstairs.

I’ve interned at probation/parole twice and I know very well that you have no clue what kind of people are living near you. You may think you’re protecting yourself by being so adamant about sex offenders, but there are things that you’ll never be able to control, and that’s one of them.

@livelaughlove21

You are right, there are many factors out of my control here. I do take measures to be safe no matter where I am (I won’t be out in the city past 11pm/midnight, I avoid certain areas, I don’t walk to my car alone in the dark, I don’t associate with neighbours, I lock everything, etc) and I’m always in danger of possibly getting mugged/raped/what have you but comfort level, I admit, I’m not comfortable with one living upstairs if I can help it.

I wish I could minimize my risk completely to zero but I can’t do that. I feel like this is all I can really do. I wish I had a way to determine violent offenders but as you know, there’s no way.

Check to see who is married and who is not, unless married to to one woman and her to one man, then any who are under that roof is a sex offender really.

@Hypocrisy_Central Oh, yeah, because married people are never sex offenders…psht! What an ignorant statement.

Depends on which perspective you are looking from, it can go both ways.

I live with my boyfriend in a long term monogamous relationship but we are not married. I really resent the statement that anyone living together in a relationship who isn’t married is a sex offender. I can assure you, we are not.

When I was growing up, I lived a mile from a Level 3 sex offender. Violent rapist, multiple counts of rape. He was married to a woman. I knew his kid too, the kid was on my bus route.

Then by way you explained it he is a violent man, but his offence would actually be physical assault against those women. The sex plays no part because if they wanted to have sex with him, there would be no crime, so the only element different than that is they did not want to have sex with him, so he used violence to achieve this non-offensive act. If you are going to go by the less than genuine technical term, ask the landlord, or you can go to the law enforcement office that handles that jurisdiction and I am sure they can tell you, once they vet you out to make sure you are not going to carry out some vigilantly action.

It’s not just the violent ones I worry about. The perverted ones who like to molest minors are other ones I don’t want to be near. Not violent, but very immoral and creepy.

^ It all comes down to how the masses choose to see it and another group would see it totally different, it all comes to who has more guns; might makes right. Either way, the local office of law enforcement will have that info.