Motherwell and Wishaw have the highest number of sex offenders living in the community in Scotland according to new police figures.
The latest statistics show there are almost 6000 registered sex offenders (RSOs) in Scotland at present, and 16 of them are wanted as of March 31.
The Police Scotland data shows there are exactly 5752 sex offenders living in Scotland, with 4150 living in the community and 1602 in prison or hospital.
The highest amount of RSOs can be found in ML1, covering Motherwell, with 65 in the area according to the figures.
Nearby ML2 - the postcode for Wishaw - has the second highest in Scotland with 55, and AB24 in Aberdeenshire third highest with 51 sex offenders living there.
These are followed by Livingston (EH54), Kilmarnock (KA1) and Leven (KY8) all with 47 sex offenders, and Ayr (KA8) recording 46.
The force also releases figures for each police division which show Glasgow having the highest concentration of perverts with 956 located within the community, jails or hospitals.
Lanarkshire is next with 731, Aberdeenshire and Moray are third highest with 585, Tayside next with 532 while Fife recorded 524 and Edinburgh has 514.
Police Scotland say sex offenders are ‘robustly managed’ and the risk of them reoffending is ‘extremely low.’
A statement from the force said: “Protecting the public is a priority for Police Scotland.
"While we can never eliminate risk entirely, we want to reassure communities that all reasonable steps are being taken to protect them.
“We put in place measures to minimise the likelihood of further sexual re-offending by RSOs and would seek to re-assure people that sexual re-offending rates remain extremely low.
“RSOs are robustly managed by the police and our partners through the multi-agency public protection arrangements, and subject to comprehensive risk assessment and risk management in the community.
“Police Scotland has units of dedicated officers specially trained for this task.”
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