SEX OFFENDERS FORCED TO REGISTER

About 120 people have registered as sex offenders in Dunklin County, the most in Southeast Missouri.

In all, nearly 300 sex offenders have registered in a 10-county area of Southeast Missouri, from Perry County to the Arkansas line since a new Missouri law went into effect Jan. 1.

Those who have registered in the Southeast Missouri region comprise 17 percent of the 1,737 who have signed up statewide.

A new Missouri law requires rapists, child molesters and other people convicted of sex crimes since July 1, 1979, to register with local police and county sheriff's departments.

The registration information is restricted to police use. The information can't be released to the public.

Law enforcement officers say the information provides them with an instant suspect list and might deter some sex offenders from committing new crimes.

Dunklin County authorities said the number of registered sex offenders in their county is only an estimate. They said they didn't have a running total.

But Sheriff Jim Elliott said, "We have well over 100."

Elliott was surprised by how many people had registered in Dunklin County, saying: "I knew the numbers were going to be high. I didn't know they would be that high."

Prosecuting Attorney Steve Sokoloff believes the high number is due to three factors: a large number of sex offense cases being reported and prosecuted, and a high percentage of offenders complying with the registration law.

"We have prosecuted a whole lot of people on sexual offenses," he said. "For a while there, it seemed like every law day we had three or four cases on the docket."

Since Sokoloff took office in 1990, the number of people sent to the penitentiary for all types of crimes has quadrupled. Last year, 165 people were sent to prison, ranking the county 10th in the state in penitentiary commitments.

That number puts the county behind urban areas like St. Louis and Kansas City, but ahead of counties like Cape Girardeau and Scott.

Sokoloff said sex crimes aren't unique to Dunklin County. Other counties have their share of such crimes.

"I don't think that our rate of sexual offenses down here is that far above other people in the area," he said.

He suggested that a low percentage of offenders may be complying with the registration law in some counties.

Sokoloff said Mississippi County, likely has more sex offenders in the county than the five who have registered.

Elliott said the southern section of the Bootheel has a lot of poverty, and alcohol abuse, sexual offenses and domestic violence probably are higher than in many parts of the state.

Southeast Missouri State University sociologist Peter Hirschburg said crime preys upon poor people.

"There is more crime where there is a lower income level," he said.

Hirschburg, chair of the sociology and anthropology department, said more people being sent to prison means more people ultimately will end up on probation or parole.

That could provide a reason why a high number of offenders in Dunklin County are complying with the law, he said.

But a Missouri Highway Patrol official in Jefferson City expressed surprise at the high number of registered sex offenders in Dunklin County.

"That would not be the norm," Lt. Bob Gartner said. Gartner is director of the patrol's criminal records division.

Dunklin County had a population of 33,112 in the 1990 census. Based on that figure, one of every 276 residents has registered as a sex offender.

The Highway Patrol receives copies of all the sex-offender-registration paperwork.

But Gartner said he didn't know where Dunklin County rates in comparison with other counties in terms of the number of sex offenders who have registered.

The master list hasn't been placed on computer yet.

"We just have a file cabinet," he said. "We are just sticking them in the files right now."

The patrol hopes to have the master list on computer by July. At that point, law enforcement agencies throughout the state will be able to pull up the information through the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System computer network.

At that point, county-by-county totals should be available, Gartner said.

The new law requires sex offenders to be fingerprinted and photographed, and to fill out a form listing their address and place of employment.

Sex offenders who move to Missouri or who change addresses within the state also must notify their local law enforcement authorities.

Sex offenders must register within 14 days of release from prison or within 10 days of their relocation to a new jurisdiction.

The law applies to felony sex offenders regardless of what state the crime was committed in.

Failure to register is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and one year in the county jail.