If your kids are heading out for trick-or-treating this Halloween, you probably know where the best candy is, but do you know who lives in every house along the route? If there’s a convicted sex offender nearby, you’d want to know before your kids knock on that door.

The U.S. Department of Justice makes that information easy to find through a free online tool: the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website , or NSOPW.gov .

The website is named after Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old North Dakota college student who was abducted and murdered in 2003 by a registered sex offender. Her case led to new laws and the creation of this nationwide database that pulls together information from every state, U.S. territory, and many tribal jurisdictions.

Parents can search by name, city, Z

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