Why so many violent/sexual offenders in MT? (Billings, Missoula: sex offenders, crime rates)

[mrwumpus]

I once considered moving to Montana with my young children, but I did some research on crime and was stunned by the number of sexual offenders living in what are very small cities compared to Southern California. Why does Montana seem to have so many?

Using the site Sexual or Violent Offender Registry Search - MT Dept of Justice I see, for example that Kalispell (population around 20,000) has 94 registered sexual offenders. Where I live Lake Forest, CA (pop 74,000) there are 23. Missoula, MT has 235 sex offenders in a population around 60,000(!). By contrast, our absolute worst city in the California county of Orange, named Santa Ana, has 213 sex offenders for a population around 350,000. Santa Ana is so bad that motorcycle cops carry shotguns.

It's my guess that Missoula is nowhere near as bad as Santa Ana overall, yet they have more registered sex offenders for a much smaller population. What gives here? (Granted, not all of these offenders committed their crimes in MT, but they are there nonetheless.)

Note: I'm not trolling or trying to offend anyone. These are legitimate questions and concerns for MT residents and potential residents.

[ElkHunter]

And a question that has been answered several times.

These stats are not reported the same for each area. To give you an example, one area may have a meth problem but they keep it from being reported because it will hurt the tourist industry. Where as, another area will report anything even closely related because they get better funding. It's a money game.

Also, do you know in some areas, should you be hiking home from the bar and decide to take a whiz, don't get caught. Exposing yourself in a public place is an offence that will have you registering as a sex offender.

Some states and areas only report or require registration if your a Class 1. Some areas will require registration if you are a Class 1, 2, or 3.

So to me, the stats don't mean much.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

And a question that has been answered several times.

These stats are not reported the same for each area. To give you an example, one area may have a meth problem but they keep it from being reported because it will hurt the tourist industry. Where as, another area will report anything even closely related because they get better funding. It's a money game.

Also, do you know in some areas, should you be hiking home from the bar and decide to take a whiz, don't get caught. Exposing yourself in a public place is an offence that will have you registering as a sex offender.

Some states and areas only report or require registration if your a Class 1. Some areas will require registration if you are a Class 1, 2, or 3.

So to me, the stats don't mean much.

Thank you!

[AlleninAlaska]

Originally Posted by mrwumpus

Using the site Sexual or Violent Offender Registry Search - MT Dept of Justice I see, for example that Kalispell (population around 20,000) has 94 registered sexual offenders. Where I live Lake Forest, CA (pop 74,000) there are 23. Missoula, MT has 235 sex offenders in a population around 60,000(!). By contrast, our absolute worst city in the California county of Orange, named Santa Ana, has 213 sex offenders for a population around 350,000. Santa Ana is so bad that motorcycle cops carry shotguns.

It's my guess that Missoula is nowhere near as bad as Santa Ana overall, yet they have more registered sex offenders for a much smaller population. What gives here? (Granted, not all of these offenders committed their crimes in MT, but they are there nonetheless.)

Key word is registered. How many in Santa Ana and Lake Forest did not register. The same goes for the ones in Montana.

[ExilefromCa]

That's news to me! I did some research on Park County and Gallatin County, where I live, and found that the crime rates are FAR below any I've encountered in California. So even if there are sex offenders living here, it does not appear that they are regularly committing crimes in our community.

[jimj]

I guess the real key is that most everything is printed in the paper, from traffic court to felonies and I've yet to see any major activity with respect to sex offenses.
As has been stated many times before in these threads when this comes up, don't always believe what is listed on the 'net, MT only has those listings because they were forced to and I'm sure they maintain it like they do everything else which isn't all that frequent or well. Don't buy into the hysteria, all it does is make YOU miserable and suspicious of everything and everyone and I for one refuse to live that way.

[tigergal]

Originally Posted by mrwumpus

I once considered moving to Montana with my young children, but I did some research on crime and was stunned by the number of sexual offenders living in what are very small cities compared to Southern California. Why does Montana seem to have so many?

Using the site Sexual or Violent Offender Registry Search - MT Dept of Justice I see, for example that Kalispell (population around 20,000) has 94 registered sexual offenders. Where I live Lake Forest, CA (pop 74,000) there are 23. Missoula, MT has 235 sex offenders in a population around 60,000(!). By contrast, our absolute worst city in the California county of Orange, named Santa Ana, has 213 sex offenders for a population around 350,000. Santa Ana is so bad that motorcycle cops carry shotguns.

It's my guess that Missoula is nowhere near as bad as Santa Ana overall, yet they have more registered sex offenders for a much smaller population. What gives here? (Granted, not all of these offenders committed their crimes in MT, but they are there nonetheless.)

Note: I'm not trolling or trying to offend anyone. These are legitimate questions and concerns for MT residents and potential residents.

Another consideration is whether there is a correctional facility there skewing the numbers. For example, I have a relative who lives in an area with a very high number of sexual offenders. She also lives in the same zip code as a county penal facility, where when you look at the address, the overwhelming majority of those offenders reside. However, just to plug in the zip code, one would assume that she lived in some sort of highly dangerous neighborhood full of rapists and pedophiles when that's not the case.

[A Neighbor]

All violent crimes and sex crimes in MT are reported on that site. When I look up the town I live in there are 3 people that come up. When I look up the town I grew up in there are 3 pages, and one of the people that is listed on there I grew up with and he is living with the consequences of a 2nd degree federal murder charge. When I look up the town where my brother lives there are around 29 pages with crimes ranging from domestic violence to rape and molestation of a child to murder.

So the moral to my story is that unless the websites compare apples to apples, numbers really don't mean anything.

How many violent offenders live in Santa Ana? I'm betting that it is a whole lot more than our largest city, Billings.

When you look at the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry it will tell you what each state lists, CA for example only lists registered sex offenders while CO lists only high risk sex offenders. The requirements for each state differ greatly.

[rickers]

Many of the registered violent and / or sexual offenders registered in Montana seem to be from other states with the offence taking place in those other states. Also it seems that dead end-er desperado types seem to be attracted to this state as they believe they can hide here or get a chance to start over.

[mrwumpus]

I think rickers has a point about "desperadoes" fleeing to Montana. I did notice many of the offenders committed their crimes in other states.

Montana is similar to Alaska, in that Americans from other states think of both states as a sort of last frontier where you reinvent yourself and nobody knows who you are. A cursory glance at Alaska's sex offender stats show they too have very high numbers just like Montana.

Jails did alter the statistics, but not by much. Of the 94 sex offenders I mentioned in Kalispell only 5 appear to be in the Flathead County jail.

The fact is every state has its negatives. Your city might have four times the number of sex offenders, but my city has four times the number of illegal aliens, etc, etc.