Frequently Asked Questions

To find additional information about a particular sex offender, click on the offender's name in the search result list. This will take you to the jurisdiction's detail page.

You can also try contacting registry officials in the jurisdiction where that offender is registered.

Many times, registry officials will not be able to disclose any additional information about an offender but might be able to direct you to resources or offices within their jurisdiction where you could find that information.

The sex offender registration information that you see on NSOPW.gov is retrieved from the individual jurisdiction(s) where a sex offender is registered. To correct any errors in registration information, please contact the appropriate registration officials in those jurisdictions.

Each jurisdiction has its own laws regarding sex offender registration requirements. For information about a specific jurisdiction, contact the appropriate registration officials in the jurisdiction where the sex offender is registered.

Each jurisdiction has its own laws that determine what information is displayed on its public registry website. Specific sex offender information can be found on a jurisdiction’s website. See the NSOPW list of jurisdictions to find the appropriate contact information.

The sex offender registration information displayed on NSOPW is retrieved from the individual jurisdiction(s) where a sex offender is registered. To add any registration information, please contact the appropriate jurisdiction registration officials.

Each jurisdiction’s registration requirements are different. Some, but not all, jurisdictions require sex offender registration information to remain on their public registry website even after the offender has died. This allows sexual abuse and assault survivors and victims’ families to track where a perpetrator is, including if the person has died.

The public sex offender registries hosting sex offender information are known as “jurisdictions.” These jurisdictions include the 50 states, the principal U.S. territories, the District of Columbia and participating federally recognized Indian tribes. The complete list of NSOPW jurisdictions links users to each participating jurisdiction’s sex offender registry website.

Sex offenders are subject to the registration laws of the jurisdictions where they work, live, attend school and were convicted. Each jurisdiction’s registration requirements might be different. Some jurisdictions require a sex offender’s registration information to remain on its public registry website even after the offender has relocated to another jurisdiction.

Each jurisdictions has its own laws that determine how sex offender information is collected, maintained and displayed. Therefore, each jurisdiction created and maintained its own registry to comply with its laws.

No. NSOPW primarily uses web services to search the individual databases of the jurisdictions in real time when a user conducts a search. This method ensures that NSOPW is returning the most current information.

No. The U.S. Department of Justice does not maintain the sex offender information displayed on NSOPW and therefore does not have information to provide. All of the information provided through this website is maintained by the separate jurisdictions, and access to that information is controlled by the agency within each jurisdiction responsible for registering sex offenders.

The sex offender registration information that you see on NSOPW is retrieved from the individual jurisdiction(s) where a sex offender is registered. To get removed from this site, please contact the appropriate registration officials in those jurisdictions.

The sex offender registration information that you see on NSOPW is retrieved from the individual jurisdiction(s) where a sex offender is registered. For questions or comments about that data, contact the appropriate registration officials in the jurisdiction where the sex offender is registered.

To find the jurisdiction where an offender is registered, click on the offender's name in the search result list. This will take you to the jurisdiction's detail page.

This site is fully funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and is available to all public users at no cost and no membership is required to use this site.

If you believe someone has wrongly taken money from you, we suggest contacting your local law enforcement agency.

No. The browser interface is the only way to search for sex offenders on NSOPW.

Yes. NSOPW is committed to being a leading public safety resource. We encourage and permit links to NSOPW content by other organizations committed to the safety and protection of the public.

For states to be included in the Address Radius Search, they must have the latitude and longitude for all their registered offenders’ addresses and be able to respond to address-based search requests from NSOPW. The states that are included in the Address Radius Search are the only ones currently providing this functionality to NSOPW. We are actively working with more states so they can be included soon. Check back in the future to see whether your state has been added.

If you think that a person should be registered as a sex offender and you cannot find him or her on our website, you should contact the registry officials in the Jurisdiction where that person lives, works or goes to school.

The Conditions of Use inform users of what are acceptable uses of the information provided, as well as what actions are illegal. Each participating jurisdiction’s Conditions of Use are also included and must be agreed to in order to conduct a search.

The program that generates the extra steps is called a CAPTCHA, which stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” The CAPTCHA is used to protect the availability of the website and to preserve the integrity of the information available through the site.

NSOPW’s advanced search tool provides information about sex offenders through a number of search options:

• By Name
• By Address (if provided by Jurisdiction)
• By Jurisdiction
• By ZIP Code
• By County (if provided by Jurisdiction)
• By City/Town (if provided by Jurisdiction)
• National

The criteria for searching are limited to what each individual jurisdiction may provide. Also, because information is hosted by each jurisdiction and not by the federal government, search results should be verified by the user in the jurisdiction where the information is posted. Users are advised to visit the corresponding jurisdiction websites for further information and/or guidance, as appropriate.

Yes. In addition to the data from the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the five principal U.S. territories and federally recognized Indian tribes that elect to function as registration jurisdictions are included in search results.

Make sure that you spelled the offender’s last name correctly. If you are unsure of the spelling of the first name, you can use a first initial in the search box.

If this does not work and you think that the person should be registered as a sex offender, contact the registry officials in the jurisdiction where that person lives, works, or goes to school.

Most jurisdictions’ sex offender registry websites have a banner identifying themselves. Some, however, will appear in the NSOPW results window without that identifying information. To find out the jurisdiction where that information originated, put your mouse arrow over the window with the registration information, right click on “Properties,” and then cut and paste the “Address (URL)” http:// address into your browser’s address bar. This will take you to the jurisdiction’s website, and you can continue your inquiry.

NSOPW will display up to 300 results; this error indicates that the search performed has more than 300 matches.

Since NSOPW uses web services to perform real-time searches of the individual jurisdictions’ databases, when a jurisdiction has a system or internet connectivity problem, that jurisdiction’s database cannot be accessed by NSOPW. These problems are usually fixed quickly and very rarely result in a jurisdiction being unavailable for more than an hour.

If a site is unavailable for more than an hour, please use the Contact Us form to find out more information.

NSOPW was renamed by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, in honor of 22-year-old college student Dru Sjodin of Grand Forks, North Dakota. For more information about Dru Sjodin, please visit the About Dru page.

NSOPW is managed by the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) as authorized by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

NSOPW development and maintenance is federally funded through the U.S. Department of Justice to comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. NSOPW is the only government system that exists to link public state, territory and tribal sex offender registries from one national search site.

The FBI’s National Sex Offender Registry is a law-enforcement only database maintained by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division. Conversely, NSOPW is a public resource that searches the public sex offender registries from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the five principal U.S. territories and federally recognized Indian tribes.