False Sense of Security

Sex Offenders Relocating Out of Sight
Residency restrictions for sex offenders are gaining popularity around the country. These ordinances which were created to benefit and protect children are in fact providing a false sense of security for communities by driving sex offenders off the map in order to find a location to live.

In recent years, states such as Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee and most recently Nevada as well as multiple cities in other states have adopted and implemented residency restrictions for convicted sex offenders. In 2006 Georgia adopted one of the nation’s toughest restrictions which prohibited sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet (1/5 mile) from any schools, churches, swimming pools or places that children might gather. In Iowa, a new state law prohibits sex offenders (whose crime involved children) from living within 2,000 feet (2/5 mile) of a school or day care facility. Other cities and towns throughout the country are implementing their own restriction zones which include libraries and museums.

Even though the laws have the right goal in mind – to protect children – they have had the adverse effect and made it impossible in some cases for convicted sex offenders to find a legal place to live. They also have made it tough for law enforcement officials to track registered sex offenders due to the housing shortage. In order to find housing, sex offenders relocate to a new city or turn to their cars, motels and even in some cases under bridges and parking lots to live. The real outcome of these ordinances is not always a safer place to live but a community that has sex offenders "disappearing" with law enforcement officials in the dark about their locations.

It is understandable not to want sex offenders living around children but what are the true outcomes of creating such strict laws? Is it really safer for children and communities? Or have these laws become counter productive?

An Iwa newspaper reported that "the law results in frequent moves – many of which are not reported to law enforcement – and a more transient lifestyle by sex offenders, making it more difficult to track their whereabouts and diminishing the credibility and reliability of the state’s sex offender registry. That the number of unaccounted-for sex offenders in the state has more than doubled since the law took effect provides evidence of that and. as a result, the law requires manpower for enforcement that is disproportionate to the protection it provides and takes resources away from other important areas." (1) This was stated after Des Moines law officials reported that after restrictions were implemented in 2006, 400 of the 6,000 registered sex offenders, are now listed as "whereabouts unknown" or "living in a non-structure location". Compared to 2005, there were only 140 under those classifications. (2)

In 2004, the Colorado Department of Public Safety conducted a study which concluded that there was no correlation between sex offenders’ living distance to places where children congregate and re-offenses. Minnesota Department of Correction came to the same conclusion in a study conducted in 2003. Further more, additional studies have concluded that housing restrictions lead sex offenders to isolation due to a shortage of housing options, financial and emotional stress, and to an overall decrease in stability. (3)

Advocates for these restricted residency laws have the best intentions in mind and believe they will decrease the likelihood of sex crimes against children. However, from the studies mentioned above and the increase of registered sex offenders’ whereabouts becoming unknown, there is little evidence that suggests these laws decrease recidivism and that housing restrictions is the answer. In fact, the housing restrictions make communities feel safer in the short term but don’t actually create a safer environment in which to live.

1 – http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/12/09/news_opinion/editorial/004c9dc2164eb2e5862573aa0083af57 <http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/12/09/news_opinion/editorial/004c9dc2164eb2e5862573aa0083af57> .

2 – Iowa Residency Rules Drives Sex Offenders Underground

3 – http://www.nacdl.org/sl_docs.nsf/issues/sexoffender_attachments/$FILE/Levenson-1000feet_rule.pdf <http://www.nacdl.org/sl_docs.nsf/issues/sexoffender_attachments/$FILE/Levenson-1000feet_rule.pdf>

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