Care for a sobering dose of reality? One is available, free of charge, no matter where you happen to live in the Mahoning Valley. A bit of caution — you’re not going to like what you find.

It’s called the Ohio Sexual Offender Search, a database available courtesy of the state of Ohio at https://ohio.gov/residents/resources/sex-offender-search.

With a few clicks, Ohio residents can learn how many sexual offenders’ last-known addresses are within a certain radius of any address.

For example, the database shows as many as 28 sexual offenders in 16 locations within one mile of downtown Warren. Expand the radius to five miles and the list jumps to 133 sexual offenders in 116 locations.

Within a one-mile radius from a spot in downtown Youngstown, there are 13 sexual offenders in eight locations. Increase the radius to five miles and the numbers really jump — 415 offenders in 313 locations.

In Lisbon, the county seat of Columbiana County, there are four sexual offenders within a one-mile radius. Expand the radius to five miles and you get 21 offenders in 19 locations.

That’s still more than enough to make parents concerned. Now try your own addresses or the addresses of the schools, churches or recreational areas your kids frequent. Then keep in mind that these are only the sexual offenders and predators who’ve been caught and cycled through the legal system — arrested, charged, convicted and perhaps imprisoned and released.

There are, unfortunately, more out there. Some of them might be people you currently know and trust. That’s what makes some of these offenders even more dangerous. Some have become adept at targeting victims because they’ve successfully adopted an eminence front — a put-on — based on jobs or positions in the community.

You’ve doubtlessly read stories about these predators over the years. They’ve been fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, grandparents, teachers, administrators and clergy. Some have been police officers.

The common thread is that they’ve used those family, occupational or community connections to prey on victims. It seems a new case hits the news in the Mahoning Valley nearly every week.

A longtime youth coach in the area was among the latest to face charges for alleged heinous acts, in this case against a victim under the age of 13. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

If he’s guilty of rape, the sentence should be life to ensure that he’s never able to to victimize another child. We’re taught from a young age that coaches, teachers, clergy and police are authority figures. Sometimes those who target children don’t even leave their own homes to do so.

When people we’ve known and perhaps loved and respected turn out to be the worst among us, we all lose something. None, of course, more than the victims, whose lives are changed forever. That’s one reason these predators must be dealt with as harshly as the law allows.

Surely, even in these divisive times, we can all agree on that.