A recent study by researchers at the Florida Legislature found that the number of registered sex offenders living in Florida communities has increased 44 percent over the past 10 years.

The statewide total is more than 26,000, according to the researchers at the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability.

If you add in all the other sex offenders that the state is required to register — those who live out of state and those locked up in jail or prison — the number climbs to more than 66,000.

Experts who treat sex offenders and researchers say people should not be alarmed by the increase in Florida’s numbers.

“Every single state has seen an increase in the number of people on their registry over time,” said Jill Levenson, a researcher, professor of social work at Barry University and counselor who treats sex offenders in Broward County.

One of the reasons: “People come onto the registry, but they don’t come off,” she said. The number will continue to climb, she said, because it’s like building a prison from which inmates are never released.

What’s important to remember, experts say, is that most registered sex offenders do not commit new sex crimes.

“About 95 percent of people who are caught with child pornography never reoffend,” said Dr. Alan Grieco, a Winter Park psychologist at Psychological Affiliates who evaluates and treats sex offenders.

The most common registered sex offender in Florida is a middle-aged white man who sexually abused a minor, according to a 2013 study by a team of researchers led by Levenson.

Which types of sex offenders are the most dangerous? High on the list, according to researchers, are those who rape adults. They are more likely to reoffend and to use weapons or force, according to the Florida Association for the Treatment of Sex Abusers, a group of professionals who treat sex abusers.

Sex offenders who molest underage boys are among the most likely to reoffend, according to the group.

People who possess child pornography are among the least likely to molest children, the association reported.

Sheriffs keep tabs on offenders

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is the agency that manages the sex registry, but its job is not to manage sex offenders.

Its job is to oversee a system that relies on offenders to self-report. They must register at the local sheriff’s office twice a year and fill out paperwork, saying where they live. If they don’t, they face possible arrest.

In fiscal year 2014-15, 878 were arrested for failing to register, legislative researchers found.

Sexual predators, a classification for people who are believed to be a greater threat, must register four times a year. The total living in Florida communities has gone up 145 percent in 10 years, legislative researchers found.

Except for 6,200 people who are on probation and, thus, are being supervised by the Florida Department of Corrections, no one manages the people on Florida’s sex registry.

Local sheriffs come closest. They are required to keep up-to-date addresses for them, even those who are homeless.

According to the legislative study, more than 1,700 of Florida’s registered sex offenders are transients. Nearly half of them live in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, FDLE numbers show.

About 170 of them live in Orange County.

The Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida prohibits registered sex offenders from its property, said spokeswoman Muffet Robinson.

‘We’d knock on tents’

Many registered sex offenders have trouble finding somewhere to live because of exclusion zones, the result of a state law that requires some offenders to live more than 1,000 feet from areas where children congregate.

Some communities have ordinances that expand those zones to 2,500 feet. Those communities have a higher proportion of homeless sex offenders, according to the treatment association, because offenders have fewer housing options and are blocked from more neighborhoods.

Homeless registered sex offenders are required to check in at the local sheriff’s office every 30 days, and the overwhelming majority do, the study found.

“If they register an address that’s actually a hotel, we see them monthly,” said Cpl. Dorothy Rivera, who helps manage the Orange County Sheriff’s Office sex registration squad. “We physically go out there every 30 days.”

In the past, members of her team have trekked to transient camps in the woods.

“We’d knock on tents,” she said.

The legislative study found that 764 of Florida’s registered sex offenders could not be accounted for. That’s roughly half what the total was 10 years ago.

Overall, Orange County typically ranks No. 3 in the state for number of registered sex offenders, but the totals can change daily and sometimes it’s No. 1 or 2, Rivera said.

“I know that we are keeping up on where these people are,” she said. “It makes me feel safer.”

SOURCE