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Efforts grow to keep tabs on sex offenders
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Efforts grow to keep tabs on sex offenders
By Kris Axtman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
HOUSTON
Hundreds of cities and 15 states have laws that restrict where sex offenders can live. Now, private businesses are getting into the act of protecting residents from this group, too.
A Texas developer, for instance, is building "sex offender free subdivisions" here and in Kansas, and a new national website, started by a Texan, lists homes for sale that have no registered sex offenders living within a half-mile radius.
It's all part of a wide-ranging effort to address Americans' concerns about sex offenders living next door.
Just Thursday, President Bush signed into law what child advocates are calling the most sweeping sex-offender legislation in 25 years: the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, named for the murdered son of "America's Most Wanted" host, John Walsh.
By creating a national database that links the already federally mandated state registries, the new law - among other things - will make it harder for sex offenders to take advantage of varying state laws to avoid detection. It creates a new federal felony charge, punishable by 10 years in prison for failing to update their contact information, and categorizes them by tiers so that resources can be targeted at the most dangerous offenders, says Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which pushed the measure.
More than 563,000 people in the US have been convicted of sexual offenses - and 100,000 are noncompliant, meaning they have failed to keep up with registry laws, says Mr. Allen. "That is just not acceptable," he adds. "Those who won't even comply with the simple minimum requirements of identifying where they are and what they're doing pose the greatest risks. This legislation is aimed at training the nation's resources on that group."
However, his organization is not "wildly enthusiastic" about laws that restrict where sex offenders can live.
One such ordinance was passed earlier this month in Humble, Texas, north of Houston, and punishes sex offenders for living within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care facility by fining them $2,000 a day until they move.
South of Houston, so many municipalities have passed similar ordinances that surrounding communities worry that if they don't follow suit, they will become dumping grounds for sex offenders.
"The key is to know where they are and what they're doing, not to limit where they can live. Because, by doing so, you may be inadvertently pushing them into a situation where we no longer know where they are," says Allen.
Others say databases that track convicted sex offenders and ordinances that restrict where they can live miss the point. "My concern is the misdirection by public officials and parents toward strangers and away from the real threat: the family and friends they know," says John LaFond, author of "Protecting Society from Sexually Dangerous Offenders: Law, Justice, and Therapy."
Studies show that almost 80 percent of sexual-crime victims know their perpetrators, says Mr. LaFond. "These new monitoring laws are symbolic gestures by politicians to show that they are doing something. But in the long run, they do a disservice to the community."
Buying a home that is somehow "free" from sex offenders - whether in a subdivision or a neighborhood that has been screened - is a marketing ploy that feeds on uninformed fears, he adds.
But that has not stopped Texas-based I&S Investment Group from selling out all 150 lots in its "sex offender free subdivision" in Lubbock, Texas.
It is also breaking ground on a similar subdivision outside Kansas City, Kan., in August, with plans for more elsewhere.
The subdivisions' rules will ban sex offenders from moving in, and if residents become sex offenders while inside, they will be fined $1,500 a day until they move.
Taylor Goodman of Dallas in June launched BlockWatcher.com, a website listing homes for sale across the country that have no sex offender living within a half-mile radius. "It's a pretty hard accomplishment," says Mr. Goodman, adding that only about 20 percent of all homes for sale qualify. "This issue knows no bounds. There was an $18 million home for sale in San Francisco that did not qualify."
He also says about 90 percent of the realtors he talks to are not happy about the new website. Studies show that property values can decline if a sex offender moves into the neighborhood.
This spring two Columbia University economists studied data in communities around Charlotte, N.C., and found that a home's value fell 4 percent when a registered sex offender moved in within a 1/10-mile radius. That added up to a loss of $4,500 to $5,000 per home and $59.5 million for the entire county, says Leigh Linden, who worked on the study.
The two concluded that people may go to great lengths to avoid living near a sex offender. "This is definitely more than politicians trying to outdo each other by being tough on crime," says Dr. Linden. "People really care about these things."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p01s02-ussc.html
While I think that it is a good idea to keep track of sex offenders, I don't agree with building developments that are "sex offender free" or whatever. Obviously for the truly sick bastards that molest kids or whatever, I don't care if they have to live in a cardboard box under a bridge for the rest of their lives, but that whole sex offender tag bothers me a little bit.
In MA, if you are caught urinating in public, it's a low level sex offence... and what about the people that are like 18, that get caught sleeping with their 15 year old girlfriend or whatever, and get charged wth statutory rape? An with kids involved as witnesses, I'm sure that there are some cases of wrongfully convicted people.
It just scares me that some people could be branded as a sex offender and basically outcast for their entire life.
By Kris Axtman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
HOUSTON
Hundreds of cities and 15 states have laws that restrict where sex offenders can live. Now, private businesses are getting into the act of protecting residents from this group, too.
A Texas developer, for instance, is building "sex offender free subdivisions" here and in Kansas, and a new national website, started by a Texan, lists homes for sale that have no registered sex offenders living within a half-mile radius.
It's all part of a wide-ranging effort to address Americans' concerns about sex offenders living next door.
Just Thursday, President Bush signed into law what child advocates are calling the most sweeping sex-offender legislation in 25 years: the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, named for the murdered son of "America's Most Wanted" host, John Walsh.
By creating a national database that links the already federally mandated state registries, the new law - among other things - will make it harder for sex offenders to take advantage of varying state laws to avoid detection. It creates a new federal felony charge, punishable by 10 years in prison for failing to update their contact information, and categorizes them by tiers so that resources can be targeted at the most dangerous offenders, says Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which pushed the measure.
More than 563,000 people in the US have been convicted of sexual offenses - and 100,000 are noncompliant, meaning they have failed to keep up with registry laws, says Mr. Allen. "That is just not acceptable," he adds. "Those who won't even comply with the simple minimum requirements of identifying where they are and what they're doing pose the greatest risks. This legislation is aimed at training the nation's resources on that group."
However, his organization is not "wildly enthusiastic" about laws that restrict where sex offenders can live.
One such ordinance was passed earlier this month in Humble, Texas, north of Houston, and punishes sex offenders for living within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care facility by fining them $2,000 a day until they move.
South of Houston, so many municipalities have passed similar ordinances that surrounding communities worry that if they don't follow suit, they will become dumping grounds for sex offenders.
"The key is to know where they are and what they're doing, not to limit where they can live. Because, by doing so, you may be inadvertently pushing them into a situation where we no longer know where they are," says Allen.
Others say databases that track convicted sex offenders and ordinances that restrict where they can live miss the point. "My concern is the misdirection by public officials and parents toward strangers and away from the real threat: the family and friends they know," says John LaFond, author of "Protecting Society from Sexually Dangerous Offenders: Law, Justice, and Therapy."
Studies show that almost 80 percent of sexual-crime victims know their perpetrators, says Mr. LaFond. "These new monitoring laws are symbolic gestures by politicians to show that they are doing something. But in the long run, they do a disservice to the community."
Buying a home that is somehow "free" from sex offenders - whether in a subdivision or a neighborhood that has been screened - is a marketing ploy that feeds on uninformed fears, he adds.
But that has not stopped Texas-based I&S Investment Group from selling out all 150 lots in its "sex offender free subdivision" in Lubbock, Texas.
It is also breaking ground on a similar subdivision outside Kansas City, Kan., in August, with plans for more elsewhere.
The subdivisions' rules will ban sex offenders from moving in, and if residents become sex offenders while inside, they will be fined $1,500 a day until they move.
Taylor Goodman of Dallas in June launched BlockWatcher.com, a website listing homes for sale across the country that have no sex offender living within a half-mile radius. "It's a pretty hard accomplishment," says Mr. Goodman, adding that only about 20 percent of all homes for sale qualify. "This issue knows no bounds. There was an $18 million home for sale in San Francisco that did not qualify."
He also says about 90 percent of the realtors he talks to are not happy about the new website. Studies show that property values can decline if a sex offender moves into the neighborhood.
This spring two Columbia University economists studied data in communities around Charlotte, N.C., and found that a home's value fell 4 percent when a registered sex offender moved in within a 1/10-mile radius. That added up to a loss of $4,500 to $5,000 per home and $59.5 million for the entire county, says Leigh Linden, who worked on the study.
The two concluded that people may go to great lengths to avoid living near a sex offender. "This is definitely more than politicians trying to outdo each other by being tough on crime," says Dr. Linden. "People really care about these things."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p01s02-ussc.html
While I think that it is a good idea to keep track of sex offenders, I don't agree with building developments that are "sex offender free" or whatever. Obviously for the truly sick bastards that molest kids or whatever, I don't care if they have to live in a cardboard box under a bridge for the rest of their lives, but that whole sex offender tag bothers me a little bit.
In MA, if you are caught urinating in public, it's a low level sex offence... and what about the people that are like 18, that get caught sleeping with their 15 year old girlfriend or whatever, and get charged wth statutory rape? An with kids involved as witnesses, I'm sure that there are some cases of wrongfully convicted people.
It just scares me that some people could be branded as a sex offender and basically outcast for their entire life.
My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
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Comments
What to do with pedophiles?...ask Jacko. I'm sure some of those M.J. allegations have even more unknown stories to them....all about being all passed out with the dirty naked touching delerious on the jesus juice, and exposure to blushing boner porn mags :rolleyes:
running into a roomfull of kids totally naked with a semi chub telling the kids to get naked becausse it's fun. The kids freaked. two were brothers. Other kids verified. I dont' remember Michael denying it. In fact I think it recessed/shelfed the precedings due to him gettng sick and delaying court and appointed time and strategy. Kinda interesting how like Saddam, OJ, Courtney Love, and so many others, can call the shots on the legal system and bend and reshape the perception on the issue. Especially when It's highly televised.
for shame some people do this.
Is anyone aware of a single instance where one of these lists prevented a crime? The politicians should be passing laws providing for mandatory minimum jail sentences, which they seem to have no problem doing for drug offenses, rather than creating these feel-good databases that do nothing to prevent offenders from repeating their crimes.
Cuz people are damn good actors and also in convincing themselves to save their ass to beat the rap, and make it out. Whoever they fool to get out, hopefully can and have already realized that once this guy goes swimming in a public pool, or at a resort in the carribean, around kiddies, he's gona get aroused (and drunk), to catch a glimpse of a little girls camel toe or boy's bulge here and there if he peeks carefully or blends right in
The dude doesn't get temptations like that in jail. All the internet porn channels, p2p, not to mention websites with crazy disclaimers depending on which country you live in...they're offshore and serve you up anything you fancy.
eye carumba....
I can understand it if they are a habitual offender (2 or more convictions), but I'll be there are people out there who have committed one of these crimes, never did it again, yet still have to have their name on these lists, be forced to move away from schools and parks (which is ridiculous), etc.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.