400 Sexual Offenders Registered Last Year

1-19-2011 West Virginia:

State Police released Monday that nearly 400 people were added to the sex offender registry last year. This is up from when statistics were first recorded in 1993.

The number of sex offenders in the state has doubled from 1,468 to a little more than 3,200 this year.

Sex offenders must register once a year, during the month of their birth, with state police, for as long as a judge sentences them too.

This sentencing all depends on the type of crime.

"Anytime anybody has any harmful or offensive contact with somebody with a sexual motivation they could wind up on the sex offender list regardless if there's any intrusion or any penetration or anything like that," explains Harrison County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Shaffer.

No matter what type of sexual crime an offender is convicted of, the same process occurs every time a sex offender goes to state police.

"We finger print them, photograph them, note any changes in their appearance and then we go to their house and verify their address, their cable providers, their internet access and if they're getting mail there," says Trooper First Class J.G. Barker.

While some offenders only have to register for a limited amount of years, others almost always register for life.

"Basically when they offend against children they wind up on the sex offender list for life," says Shaffer.

Prosecutors can even take it further if the crime is what Shaffer calls "so egregious" and can attempt to have the offender deemed a violent sexual predator.

"If in the opinion of the psychologist and the psychiatrist the individual is a high risk to re-offend, then that person could be adjudicated a sexual predator. That person could receive an enhanced sentence as well as supervised release, if they're ever let out of prison," Shaffer explains.

Right now there's 29 registered sexual predators in the state.

No matter what charge a sexual offender has against them, if they fail to register yearly, more charges may be brought against them.

"Sex offenders are arrested for failure to register in West Virginia and it's a felony," says Trooper Barker.

Since 2008 nearly 1,200 sexual offenders have been arrested for failing to register with the state police.

Some didn't register for their regular required yearly registry, while others didn't notify the troopers of changes in their address or jobs. ..Source.. Nicole Porter