The California Department of Justice runs the Megan's Law website under Penal Code section 290.46, the state's Megan's Law of 1996, which requires the department to notify the public about specified registered sex offenders; the information comes from the California Sex and Arson Registry, the statewide database used by law enforcement, built from what offenders report to local police and sheriffs, and the site is updated daily from what those agencies forward. Every visitor first accepts a disclaimer: the department has not assessed the specific risk that anyone shown will offend again, only information the law allows is shown, offenses other than the registrable ones are not disclosed, the data can change quickly and have gaps, mistaken identity is possible when relying on a name, age and address alone, and corrections go to a police or sheriff's department or to MegansLaw@doj.ca.gov. Nothing on the site is to be used for any purpose but protecting a person at risk.
The department warns that it cannot vouch for sex offender information on other websites, some of which draw on non official sources that may be outdated or wrong, and that the site's information is extracted from the law enforcement database and refreshed daily. The registry is statewide; a person's registering agency is the local police department or sheriff with jurisdiction over the residence, found through the California county pages, and anyone with information about a registrant in violation reports it to that local agency.
- Search: the Megan's Law website, after the disclaimer, shows registrants by full home address or by ZIP Code, city and county only, as Penal Code 290.46 assigns them, with schools and parks mapped.
- Who appears: on October 13, 2026 the site posted 55,036 registrants with a full address and 6,068 by ZIP Code, held 11,300 undisclosed and omitted 1,250 by statute, all living in the community; the incarcerated and deported are not counted.
- Tiers: since January 1, 2021 adults register for 10 years, 20 years or life by tier, juveniles for 5 or 10 years, and eligible registrants have been able to petition the superior court to end registration since July 1, 2021.
- Risk: a Static-99R score, its date and risk level appear on full address profiles, from very low risk at a score of minus 3 or minus 2 to well above average at 6 to 12, with a high LS/CMI violence level flagged where scored.
Written by SearchSystems.net from California's own systems: the California Department of Justice Megan's Law website, the website's disclaimer, the Summary of California Registration Laws, the Summary of Megan's Law, the website's Statistics page, the website's Risk Assessment page, the website's Penalties for Misuse page, the website's FAQ, the website's Additional Laws page, the department's Additional Laws guide, the department's SB 384 tiered registration questions for registrants, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The posting categories: full address, ZIP Code, or not at all
Penal Code section 290.46 sets posting categories by the offense of conviction, and the department has no discretion to leave anyone out case by case. The home address category posts the offender's home address; the ZIP Code category posts the ZIP Code, city and county but not the address; the conditional home address category moves some offenders from ZIP Code to full address on conviction of another registrable offense; and a fourth category cannot be shown on the website at all, though its members still register with local law enforcement.
The statistics page, updated daily, counted on October 13, 2026: 55,036 registrants in the full address category, 6,068 in the ZIP Code category, 11,300 in the no post category and 1,250 omitted under section 290.46, all of them living in the community in California, with the incarcerated and deported left out of the totals. Certain offenders may apply for exclusion under subdivision (d) of the section, including those who completed probation for an offense against their own child, stepchild, sibling or grandchild that involved neither oral copulation nor penetration, and since January 1, 2012 an exclusion is granted only to a person whose state static risk level is low or moderate low; an excluded offender still registers.
The department's FAQ answers the common question of a known registrant who cannot be found: not every registrant is posted, only some of those posted carry a home address, and some have been excluded; the exclusion, campus registration and other forms are on the Attorney General's registration and exclusion forms page.
Registering: five working days, the birthday update and the violation flag
Under the summary of registration laws, a person convicted of a specified sex crime is notified in writing of the duty to register before release from prison, jail or a mental hospital or on being placed on probation, and on release must register within five working days at the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the residence, which forwards the registration to the department. Registrants update annually within five working days before or after their birthday, transients every 30 days and sexually violent predators every 90 days, and report a change of address or a move into homelessness within five working days; the registry tracks the next required update, and the website shows a registrant who has missed it as in violation.
The summary of Megan's Law adds that designated law enforcement agencies may notify the public themselves, under section 290.45, when a person's current risk of sexual or violent re-offense warrants it.
The tiers since 2021: 10 years, 20 years or life
Senate Bill 384 replaced lifetime registration for everyone with tiers on January 1, 2021, as the department's registrant questions of July 2024 explain. Adults convicted in superior court register for a mandatory minimum of 10 years in tier one, 20 years in tier two, 20 years in tier three by risk assessment level under Penal Code 290.5(b)(3), and life in tier three; juveniles adjudicated in juvenile court register for 5 years in tier one and 10 in tier two.
The period runs from release from incarceration, placement or commitment, is tolled by any later incarceration or commitment though not by an arrest that leads nowhere, grows by one year for each misdemeanor and three years for each felony conviction of failing to register, and starts over on a new registrable conviction, with the highest tier applying when the second conviction comes before termination of the first. The department designates most tiers; a court sets the tier for anyone it orders to register under section 290.006 for an offense committed out of sexual compulsion or for sexual gratification, tier one unless it states reasons for two or three, and a registrant can ask the local registering agency for the tier notification letter, with disagreements left to a public defender or private attorney.
From July 1, 2021 a tier one, tier two or tier three by risk level registrant who has completed the minimum period may petition the superior or juvenile court of the county of residence, on or after the next birthday, to terminate registration, and the court grants or denies it on the bill's criteria; since January 1, 2022 the website displays registrants under the amended section 290.46, and a gubernatorial pardon ends the duty only if it rests on a finding of innocence.
Out of state, federal and military convictions are placed in a tier when assessed as equivalent to a California registrable offense.
The risk scores on a profile
California scores risk with four instruments, described on the risk assessment page and overseen by the State Authorized Risk Assessment Tools for Sex Offenders committee, SARATSO. The Static-99R scores male offenders before sentencing and before release from prison on unchanging factors, age at release, certain prior convictions and victim characteristics, and by law the instrument, score, date scored and risk level are shown on the website for anyone posted with a full address who has a Static-99 or Static-99R score; scoring began in 2006, so many earlier offenders have none, and a person offense free in the community for ten years may no longer qualify to be scored.
Under the coding rules revised in 2016, a score of minus 3 or minus 2 is level I, very low risk, formerly low; minus 1 or 0 is level II, below average, formerly low; 1 is level III, average, formerly low; 2 or 3 is level III, average, formerly low moderate; 4 or 5 is level IVa, above average, formerly moderate high; and 6 to 12 is level IVb, well above average, formerly high. The page gives the predicted sexual recidivism five years after release by score on the routine norms, from 0.9 percent at minus 3 through 2.8 at 0, 7.9 at 3, 15.2 at 5, 27.2 at 7 and 53.0 at 10, and notes the research finding that each five years in the community without a new sex offense roughly halves the risk.
The JSORRAT-II scores juveniles, who are never displayed; the STABLE-2007 and ACUTE-2007 measure changing factors such as alcohol, relationships and housing during probation and parole; and the LS/CMI predicts violent re-offense for men and women on a scale of very low at 0 to 4, low at 5 to 10, medium at 11 to 19, high at 20 to 29 and very high at 30 and above, with a high LS/CMI level flagged on a full address profile.
The additional laws on registrants
The department's additional laws guide, linked from its additional laws page, lists the duties beyond section 290. A registrant planning international travel gives the local registering agency at least 21 days' written notice of the dates and destination, on the agency's form, to satisfy federal law. A registrant who studies, works, carries on a vocation or volunteers at a university, college, community college or other institution of higher learning, including a certificate program of a year or more, registers with the campus police or, where there is none, the local agency with jurisdiction over the campus, under section 290.01.
A registrant on probation or parole gives the supervising officer proof of registration within six working days of release and proof of each change or annual update at the next appointment, under section 290.85. A registrant whose victim was under 16 cannot work, contract or volunteer directly and unaccompanied with minors on more than an incidental basis or supervise them, and one whose victim was 16 or older must disclose the registration before taking such a position, both under section 290.95 with a misdemeanor penalty; and a parolee convicted under sections 288 or 288.5 on a high risk caseload may not be placed to live near a school.
The guide, revised in December 2016, says the department cannot give legal advice and that other laws may apply.
The penalties: misuse, and registrants who search
The penalties page sets out section 290.46's teeth. Anyone who uses the website's information to commit a misdemeanor pays a fine of $10,000 to $50,000 on top of the sentence, and anyone who uses it to commit a felony serves an added five year prison term. A registrant who uses the site's search functionality faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to six months in county jail or both, though reading the main page and its links is allowed.
The information may be used only to protect a person at risk; use for health insurance, insurance, loans, credit, employment, education, housing or any business establishment's benefits or services is prohibited, and any other unauthorized use makes the user liable for actual damages, up to three times that amount and not less than $250, attorney's fees, exemplary damages or a civil penalty of up to $25,000, with the Attorney General, district attorneys, city attorneys and aggrieved people able to sue over a pattern of misuse.
A registrant who believes the posting is wrong writes to meganslaw@doj.ca.gov, one who thinks registration should not apply goes to a public defender or attorney, since the department gives no legal advice, and one who is harassed over the registration reports it to the local police.
Reading a California result
A profile means a registrable conviction the law allows to be shown, at the level the offense of conviction dictates: a full address, or a ZIP Code, city and county; no profile can mean a no post category, an exclusion, incarceration, deportation or simply no registration, and the department gives no risk opinion of its own beyond the Static-99R score where one is posted. The violation flag means a missed update, reported to the local registering agency; the tier and the minimum period are the registrant's own business with that agency and the court.
Questions about the California sex offender registry
Related California records
The registry is one of the California records this site covers: the California arrest records guide explains what a booking makes public, the inmate search guide covers the CDCR inmate locator, the background check guide covers the Department of Justice record review, and the California county pages list each sheriff and police department.