Why El Paso Has the Most Sex Offenders Per Capita

If you saw the headlines this week saying El Paso has the most sex offenders per capita in the country, you might’ve choked on your Whataburger. But before you panic and start planning a move to Albuquerque, let’s break this down with some context and a dash of common sense.

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El Paso Zip Code 79928 Tops National List for Sex Offenders

According to a study from a New Jersey law firm (yes, New Jersey is suddenly very interested in El Paso zip codes), 79928 in far East El Paso tops the national list with 358 registered sex offenders and a population of 78,971. That puts it at 45.33 offenders per capita. Another El Paso zip code, 79938, came in at number 39 with 185 registrants and a per capita rate of 19.2.

On paper, those numbers sound alarming. But don’t go installing barbed wire and motion detectors just yet.

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Why the El Paso Jail Annex and Transitional Center Skew the Numbers

Here’s the catch: both of those zip codes contain facilities where a large number of these registrants are required to live.

Zip code 79928 is home to the El Paso Transitional Center, a halfway house on Horizon Blvd. that houses over 170 men reentering society, including some registered sex offenders. Meanwhile, 79938 contains the El Paso County Jail Annex, which has a capacity of 1,896. That's right, an entire jail. So yes, if you're counting residents of a jail or halfway house in your population stats, it's going to skew the numbers significantly.

That’s kind of like saying your apartment complex is a hotbed of pizza lovers because there’s a Domino’s on the first floor.

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Texas DPS Tracks Sex Offenders and Notifies Communities

The Texas Department of Public Safety keeps public records of all sex offenders in the state, and they’re easy to look up by zip code. That’s why numbers from jail and transitional facilities can dramatically shift stats, even if most of us will never cross paths with the people living inside them.

If a high-risk sex offender moves into a neighborhood, the community is notified directly. DPS sends out postcards with all the details to local homes and businesses. No one’s sneaking in quietly.

So yes, El Paso shows up high on the list, but this isn’t some mystery crime wave. It’s more like a paperwork quirk. The offenders counted are mostly under supervision in places designed specifically to monitor them.

Bottom line: don’t let the headlines scare you. Context matters. Especially when New Jersey is writing about El Paso.