Maine Sex Offender Information

Sex offenders are a threat to the community. Protecting yourself and your loved ones from them becomes your primary concern when you move to a different location or send your child to a school or a day care center far from your known locality. To make people aware of their safety and security, the US government has taken various measures. Enactment of Megan’s Law, making sex offender registration mandatory, enhancing the penalties for sex offenses and maintaining the database of the sex offenders at county, state as well as national basis are few of them.

Maine Sex Offender Classification

There are different classes of sex crimes and penalties are imposed based on the severity of the crimes. Class A is of the most heinous kind which includes crimes like sexual act with an under age person. Punishment for such crimes is incarceration for less than forty years, probation period of less than six years and/or fine. A Maine sex offender accused of a Class B crime is one who is either guardian of an under 18 victim or attends a day camp, a camp for children or center for drug rehabilitation and engages in sexual act with a minor. The penalty in this case is an incarceration term of ten years with four years probation and/or fine. A Class C sex crime is defined as engaging in a sexual act which includes penetration and in which the victim is not an adult. Punishment for Class C sex crime is imprisonment for less than five years and probation of two years. Class D sex crime is where the offender engages in sexual misconduct and gets imprisoned for less than one year and a maximum of 364 days. Class E sex crime is indecent exposure and the punishment for it is a six month jail term.

The last two classifications fall under the category of a misdemeanor. The punishment of sex offenses also includes registration with the local law enforcement agencies when the offender is released from confinement or probation.

Maine Sex Offender Database

The website that features the Maine sex offender database is maintained by Maine Bureau of Investigation and State Police. The objective of this website is to inform people residing in the state and the respective county about the sex offenders of the locality. The registry does not hold information on every sex offender but only those who comply with Title 34-A MRSA, Chapter 15. This includes sex offenders, predators and people with prior history of sex offense. The convict can be an adult or a juvenile who is convicted as an adult. Only those offenders are required to register in Maine who have been sentenced after January 1, 1982.

Maine Sex Offender Registration

Administrating agencies for registration of Maine sex offenders are the State Police and the Maine Bureau of Investigation. When an offender completes his or her sentence and is released, it is mandatory for him or her to register with the law enforcement body nearest to his or her residence within five days. Also, if the offender changes location it must be notified to the existing as well as new local authorities. This is to ensure that people in and around offender’s area of action are notified about it. This rule is applicable for out-of-state sex offenders as well. The sex offenders must notify the jurisdiction office about the release within twenty-four hours.

For registration, the offenders must bring the proof of address, previous employment, current employment if any, name and address of educational institution attended, blood group, DNA sample, fingerprints etc. If the offender is juvenile, the name and address of school attended also needs to be mentioned. When an individual is looking for information on a Maine sex offender, he or she must get all personal and private details related to the offender. The sex offender registry offers all information including history of the crime committed, records of any physical or mental abnormality and its treatment, current photograph, initiation of sentence and its completion and all the aliases used.

Sex offenders are required to register yearly while predators must report quarterly. If any of them fail to comply, it is regarded as punishable offense. If the first time offender fails, it is a Class D crime. If the second time offender fails to register it is regarded as Class C crime and if an offender who has been convicted thrice or more fails to register, it is a Class B crime. If the registrants have served the sentence including probation, they are restricted in certain areas like day care, schools etc. Otherwise, they are free to live anywhere.

Maine Sex Offender Search

The website where you can perform your search for the sex offenders loitering in your locality can be accessed by clicking on http://sor.informe.org/sor/. Initially, the local police agencies had the information and photos but post 2005, the 122nd Legislature of the State of Maine has prohibited the practice and instead developed the above mentioned site where the offenders register about their whereabouts.

If you have any queries regarding the sex offender registry, you can mail them at Sex Offender Registry, State Bureau of Identification, 45 Commerce Drive, Suite #1, 42 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0042. The phone numbers to reach the office are Voice (207) 624-7270, TDD (207) 624-4478. The office hours are 8.00 am to 5.00 pm on all weekdays. You can also notify the authorities about any incoherent information found on the website.

This service is provided free of cost and is concurrent with Megan’s Law. The Megan’s Law came into existence in 1996 when as a follow-up measure of Megan Kanka case, Supreme Court concluded that a sex offender is likely to repeat the crime when released. So, to ensure public safety, a database must be maintained so as to notify the society of a sex offender being released in the community. Megan’s Law concentrates on sex offenses against children and compels state law to disclose private and personal details of the offenders to the general public. 

If you want, you can ask for criminal background history check of a Maine sex offender from State Bureau of Investigation from their website www.maine.gov/pcr .  All you need to do is to pay $25 to learn if the offender has previous history of other crimes also.