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.