During the past few weeks, Patch sites around Chicago posted a sex offender registry map.

We looked at data of towns surrounding Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills and found the percentage of sex offenders per town by dividing the number of sex offenders listed on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry by a town's population. We hope this provides context as to how many live where.  

The registry list includes those in a Department of Corrections facility, those who are homeless and those whose location may be unknown. 

The populations in the chart are from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2011. 

Who Needs to Register?

Persons convicted of misdemeanor or felony sex crimes involving children under age 18 as well as adult victims are required to register their addresses with the local law enforcement agency in the communities where they reside once a year, under the Illinois Sex Offender Registration Act. The same rules apply to out-of-state sex offenders who move to or work in Illinois, as well as out-of-state students attending a state college or university.

The Illinois State Police maintain a detailed Sex Offender Registry of all of the state's registered sex offenders that is available to the public. There, citizens can look up and find the registered sex offenders living in their own communities. Local police departments throughout the state feed information about the individual sex offenders registered in their jurisdictions to the state database.

To see the three Clarendon Hills registered sex offenders, click here and type "Clarendon Hills" into the search box on the right side of the page.

Similar requirements for registration are also in effect for sex crimes committed against adults — especially adults with disabilities.

A sex offender must register annually in person at the local police department for the duration of the required 10-year registration period. 

In addition, registered sex offenders are prohibited from residing within 500 feet of a school, daycare center, youth center or other facility catering to children under age 18.

Editor's note: Steven Reynolds, a substitute teacher from unincorporated Hinsdale, pleaded guilty to criminal sexual abuse of a 17-year-old Carl Sandburg High School student earlier this year. He was required to register as a sex offender as a condition of his guilty plea, but he has not yet listed in the Illinois database.

This report was based on one written by Naperville Patch editor Collin Czarnecki and Bolingbrook Patch editor Melissa Sersland.