Today, CBS12 put out another scare piece that begins, “Our schools and playgrounds have become a home for sex offenders.”

With no shortage of inflammatory statements, such as “registered offenders are eyeing schools too”, “offenders are also getting creative” and “it sounds frightening because it is”, the piece omits all objectivity.

They write, “three years later transient sex offenders in Palm Beach County have more than doubled”, but instead of focusing on the underlying cause, they spin it as if crafty sex offenders are exploiting loopholes to get at children, which is not the cause.

Residency Restrictions have caused the increase in homelessness among registrants in the area. A recent study titled, “Transient Sex Offenders and Residence Restrictions” (which could not be more on point) not only concluded the same, but noted other negative collateral consequences.

At the same time numerous studied have found Residency Restrictions to be ineffective, including this one from the US Department of Justice, which found the restrictions had no effect on re-offending and further, that proximity to schools and parks had little relation to where offenders met victims.

CBS12 points out that transience among homelessness has tripled in recent years as if that’s a desired result among registrants. It’s not! It’s because new registrants get added to the list every year and old ones never come off. It’s because residency restrictions significantly reduce the amount of available housing.

There are plenty of transient registrants who would much rather live with their families than sleep without shelter and defecate in a dumpster at night, but this law has left them without that option.

Maybe the phenomenon is not about sex offenders “eyeing schools” but about human beings eyeing dignity?

Maybe you should start eyeing the research, CBS12?

 

 

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