Sexual assaults less likely in neighborhoods where registered sex offenders live
ANN ARBOR—Reported sex offenses were lower in neighborhoods where more registered sex offenders live—a finding that runs counter to public perception about residential safety.
A new study by the University of Michigan and Princeton University explored sex offender laws and the location of reported sex crimes by tracking address information of registered sex offenders in Baltimore County, Maryland.
The study’s authors began with years of data for 4,100 confirmed home addresses of more than 1,500 registered sex offenders who lived in Baltimore County. Combining this information with data on reported crimes from the Baltimore County Police Department from early 1990s through part of 2009, they found that each additional sex offender living in a residential area was associated with 7.5 percent fewer sex offenses.
Researchers also analyzed changes in the patterns in reported crime after the public was able to use the online Maryland Sex Offender Registry to search for the whereabouts of convicted sex criminals.
Making a sex offender’s identity and location available to the public appears to increase the likelihood of reported sex offenses in neighborhoods where the offenders lived, although crimes of forcible rape and sex offenses against children were exceptions to this pattern, said Amanda Agan, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton and one of the study’s authors.
If neighbors learn that a registered sex offender lives nearby, an individual may become more likely to report suspicious activity, the researchers said. Parents also may decide to discuss the need to report sexual abuse with their children, who in turn may be more likely to report something unusual, said J.J. Prescott, a U-M law professor and one of the study’s authors.
The researchers note that the findings are based on reported crimes, not actual crimes.
The findings appear in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Am I the only one a little confused here? LOL The first sentence says “Reported sex offenses were lower in neighborhoods where more registered sex offenders live—a finding that runs counter to public perception about residential safety.” Ok but then later in the article is says “Making a sex offender’s identity and location available to the public appears to increase the likelihood of reported sex offenses in neighborhoods where the offenders lived, although crimes of forcible rape and sex offenses against children were exceptions to this pattern, said Amanda Agan, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton and one of the study’s authors.’ So are they saying that public notification works? Please tell me I am reading that incorrectly! lol How can the crimes be less but the reports go up? help!
Crimes go down because the people in the area are more alert to the presence of sex offenders in their area. There for they report more suspicious activity which turns out to be nothing more than maybe an evening walk. The reports also cause more police to patrol the area there for less crime. By reporting to police suspicious activity they tend to up their patrols of that certain area. Criminals try to avoid high police traffic areas. Also statistically speaking Sex offenders only have a 3-6% re-offense rate the lowest of all crimes. Talk to your local sex offenders they are not always bad. You can be convicted of a sex offense because you urinated on a dumpster behind a bar or were sun bathing out back on your own property and someone saw you, or you forgot that your blinds were open when you engaged in sex with your significant other…. Not all of these people go out in a candy truck to try to kidnap kids. Remember when you look at their flier that the victims age doesn’t ever change. The crime may have been commited when the offender was 18 and his girlfriend was 15. How ever 12 years later his age is reported at 30 and hers is still 15.
it is so great to see so many articles and studies being published, that are positive towards this topi as apposed to the stranger danger and fear mongering lies in the yellow media reporting.