A criminal behavioural expert says Senator Derryn Hinch's proposal for a sex offenders register may be misguided.

Senator Hinch ran for election promising to push for a public sex offenders register, which he says would let members of the public locate convicted sex offenders.

But University of New England criminologist Xanthe Mallett says such a register is unlikely to make the community safer.

“Politicians often pay lip service to the problem of sex offending, by promoting largely ineffective measures like public registers and longer sentences,” Dr Mallett told reporters.

“A public register may whip up fear and encourage vigilantism.”

Australian states and territories currently maintain registers of convicted sex offenders, keeping a close eye on their whereabouts when they get out of prison.

But the lists are not accessible to members of the public.

Senator Hinch wants a website to be set up to allow anyone to find the names, addresses and photos of convicted sex offenders.

He said he had used an app during a visit to Texas that allowed him to find out exactly where a nearby offender was located.

“It just means that if your kid's ball goes over the fence, you didn't chase it, and at Halloween for ‘trick or treat’ you knew to stay away from the place,” he said.

“It hasn't [encouraged vigilantism] to any degree in the United States, and they've had it for 20 years.”

Dr Mallett supports allowing some limited access to certain information on convicted sex offenders for child protection caseworkers in particular.

But she warned there were some fine lines to walk.

“The waters have been muddied between sex offenders and paedophiles,” Dr Mallett said.

A paedophile is someone who is attracted to pre-pubescent children, while a sex offender is a person guilty of a sexual offence against a child.

“Money should be redirected towards measures that would help reduce the sexual victimisation of children, such as support programs for paedophiles, to help them develop ways to manage their sexual inclinations rather than act on them,” she said.

Senator Hinch says things need to change.

“When I go to jail my name is out there, when a killer goes to jail and then released their names are out there,” he said.

“Why is it only sex offenders whose names are suppressed?”