2-3-2008 Georgia:
Placing restrictions on where registered sex offenders can live and work is politically popular, and certainly appears tough on crime.
But do those restrictions actually work? Do they do more harm than good?
Some Georgia legislators who fought against the passage of a bill to reinstate residency restrictions on sex offenders said that not only do the restrictions not prevent sexual abuse of children, but they suck up vital law enforcement resources and make it harder for offenders to stay on the up and up.
Sgt. Mike McGuffey of the Coweta County Sheriff's Office, who oversees Coweta's sex offender registry, said that he likes to know where his sex offenders are living. But it doesn't really matter where they live. McGuffey said he is thinking of testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee when it takes up the House version of the sex offender bill.
Last fall, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the residency restrictions, saying that they violated property rights.
Under that law, sex offenders were forced to move out of their homes if a school, church, day-care center or other prohibited site were to open up within 1,000 feet of the home.
The new bill gives an exemption to sex offenders who own their property; renters are out of luck.
McGuffey sees a myriad of problems with the law. What if a sex offender is married but the house is in his wife's name? What if an elderly couple dies and leave their house to their child, who is a sex offender? "He inherits the family land where he grew up, and he's the owner and there's a day-care. What happens if it's been in his family for 50 years and a day-care went up a month earlier?"
"Technically, there's a lot of questions," McGuffey said.
When asked whether he thinks residency restrictions are effective, McGuffey said he has spoken to law enforcement officers in other states where there aren't residency restrictions. "They didn't seem to have a problem," he said. "It was better for them because the sex offender was not more likely to run or go underground."
The possibility that sex offenders will give up trying to be good and go underground was something mentioned several times by the legislators during discussion of the bill.
That is something that concerns McGuffey. "If we keep making them move ... one of these days they're going to get tired," he said. "And then we won't know where they live."
"I don't think the residential restriction in any way affects the purpose of the sex offender registry," he said. Staying away from areas where minors congregate might help them avoid temptation, but with the Internet, temptation is everywhere.
"The fact is knowing where they are ... it's not where they live, that's just a factor of keeping track of them," he said.
There is also the concern of what having to abide by these restrictions forever does to someone who was convicted of a minor crime — for example, someone who was a teenager and had consensual sex with a 15-year-old.
Though that crime is now a misdemeanor, if the perpetrator is only a few years older, there are many statutory rape offenders on registration lists all over the state, including in Coweta.
When offenders get out of jail, it can be very hard for them to find a place to stay and work. Many times, they can't stay with their family, said Rep. Alisha Morgan, D-Austell.
Additionally, Morgan said, many organizations that work with victims of sexual assault have opposed the new bill.
Those in favor of the restrictions always talk about protecting children.
But 94 percent of child sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim knew, said Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam, D-Riverdale, who gave the minority report. And 75 percent of the assaults are committed by family members.
"By continuing to focus on child sexual abuse as a stranger abduction phenomenon, this bill may seriously damage the steps we have taken to create safer communities," she said.
A study by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles found that each time a former inmate had to move the chances of his reoffending went up 25 percent. And the chance of reoffending goes up 1 percent every day that offender is out of work, Abdul-Salaam said.
Sources:
Enhancing Parole Decision-Making Through the Automation of Risk Assessment
Executive Summary: Automated Parole Risk Assessments
The sex offender registry, for the most part, treats all offenders the same. Someone convicted of statutory rape or public indecency has to abide by the same restrictions as a child rapist.
Rep. Steve Davis, R-McDonough, spoke in favor of the bill, saying "it just absolutely fascinates me how anyone can come in here and say that a convicted felon's right to property is more important than the safety of a child."
"We're talking about family values and our children," he said.
Sex offenders have families and children as well. Many of Coweta's sex offenders have children in school. One often goes to each lunch at school with his daughter. McGuffey said he often gets calls about sex offenders being at recreation fields and the like. Usually, they are there watching their children play sports. And they have every right to be. Sex offenders are prohibited from loitering at certain places, but if they have a reason to be there, that's OK.
McGuffey likes the fact that he knows exactly where every sex offender lives and works, and what kind of car they drive. And that they have to check up with him.
But when it comes to the residency restrictions, "I don't know what they're talking about when they're talking about protecting" children and families, he said.
The law doesn't keep predators from attacking children. It doesn't make them better or worse people.
"It's just going to restrict where a sex offender can and cannot live" McGuffey said. "That's all it's going to do." ..more.. by SARAH FAY CAMPBELL
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