This Massachusetts County Has the Most Registered Sex Offenders in the State

Massachusetts is a great state to live in. The overall quality of life is often reported as one of the best in the country in nationwide surveys. The cost of living, employment rates, quality of education, and crime rates all rank as some of the best in the nation.

Safety is often a top concern for Massachusetts residents and a reason many choose to live here. There are plenty of cities and towns in the state that have extremely low crime rates and, in fact, 26 Massachusetts municipalities made the list of the 100 safest communities in the United States.

While Massachusetts is full of so many wonderful people, but, like any state, there are some bad folks there as well. According to SafeHome.org, as of February 2023, there were 5,665 registered sex offenders living in Massachusetts. That number might seem high, but in reality, it's only .0008% of the population.

There are three levels of sex offenders in Massachusetts and are classified based on their risk of re-offending and the degree of danger that they pose to the public, according to Mass.gov.

A sex offender is anyone who lives, works, or attends school in Massachusetts who has been convicted of a sex offense, been adjudicated as a youthful offender or as a delinquent juvenile for a sex offense, been released from incarceration, parole, probation supervision, or custody with the Department of Youth Services for a sex offense conviction or adjudication and been adjudicated as a sexually dangerous person, or a person released from civil commitment anytime from August 1, 1981.

The three levels of registered sex offenders in Massachusetts are organized as follows:

• Level 1 -Level one sex offenders have a low risk of re-offending and pose a low degree of danger to the public.
• Level 2 - Level two sex offenders have a moderate risk of re-offending and pose a moderate degree of danger to the public. The public can only access level two offender data on the internet for sex offenders classified after July 12, 2013.
• Level 3 - Level three sex offenders have a high risk of re-offending and pose a high degree of danger to the public. Information about them is publicly available.

Since Massachusetts, along with the other 49 states, requires sex offenders to register on a state database, the public has access to the names and addresses of offenders across the state.

We took a look at the state database to determine what county in Massachusetts has the most registered sex offenders.

Worcester County, Massachusetts Has the Most Registered Sex Offenders in the State.

• Worcester County, with a population of 862,927, has 996 registered sex offenders living there.

Below is a complete list of Massachusetts counties and the number of registered sex offenders that live or reside in each. All data collected was from the state database.

• Suffolk County, with a population of 766,381 has 777 registered sex offenders living there.

• Hampden County, with a population of 461,041 has 678 registered sex offenders living there.

• Middlesex County, with a population of 1,617,205, has 623 registered sex offenders living there.

• Essex County, with a population of 806,765 has 604 registered sex offenders living there.

• Bristol County, with a population of 580,068, has 572 registered sex offenders living there.

• Plymouth County, with a population of 533,069 has 347 registered sex offenders living there.

• Norfolk County, with a population of 725,531, has 245 registered sex offenders living there.

• Berkshire County, with a population 127,859, has 189 registered sex offenders living there.

• Barnstable County, with a population of 232,457, has 175 registered sex offenders living there.

• Hampshire County, with a population of 162,688 has 128 registered sex offenders living there.

• Franklin County, with a population of 70,894, has 123 registered sex offenders living there.

• Dukes County, with a population of 20,868, has 10 registered sex offenders living there.

• Nantucket County, with a population of 14,421, has eight registered sex offenders living there.

Nationally, Massachusetts ranks right in the middle, at number 22 on the list of states with the most registered sex offenders.