FL- Senate Committee OKs Sex Offender Bill

4-3-2008 Florida:

TALLAHASSEE - The national media swarmed last year around a group of homeless sex offenders living under a bridge linking Miami to Miami Beach.

The men were forced to live there because of strict local laws that didn't let them live within 2,500 feet of schools, day care centers or other places children might gather - essentially eliminating any legitimate housing options for them.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, referred to this extreme example Tuesday to push for a statewide 1,500-foot buffer between where sex offenders live and places children gather. In doing so, his bill would repeal get-tough sex offender housing ordinances passed by more than 120 Florida communities in the past few years, including Miami Beach and New Port Richey.

"They're counterproductive because they force people to go underground or go homeless," said Aronberg before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously moved the bill forward. "I can't think of a more dangerous situation than to have a colony of homeless sex offenders roaming our streets."

In addition to extending state sex offender residency restrictions from 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet, Aronberg's bill also calls for the state to adopt the "no lingering zones" enacted by Hillsborough County last year. This law prohibits certain types of sex offenders from loitering within 300 feet of places like parks, schools and libraries.

Although Aronberg's proposal likely will face resistance from some of the cities that have tougher residency laws, the proposal also illustrates the slippery slope lawmakers and children's safety advocates straddle when it comes to dealing with those who commit sex crimes against children.

Although the public likes the idea of residency restrictions and no one wants to stick up for sex offenders or predators, experts say such laws do little to actually prevent sex crimes in the first place.

Jill Levenson, a nationally known researcher at Lynn University who studies sex offender laws, applauds the idea of repealing what she sees as some of the punitive housing restrictions in places like Miami Beach. She is not keen, though, about extending residency state laws by 500 feet.

"There is no research to support that sex offenders' proximity to schools or parks leads to recidivism," she wrote in a letter to the Senate committee.

There are other issues, too, about who really commits sex offenses, said Corwin Ritchie, executive director of the Iowa County Attorneys Association, a group of public prosecutors that has been vocal about sex offender laws since 2002, when Iowa became the first state in the nation to enact 2,000-foot buffers between sex offenders and schools.

"We have said all along that the residency restrictions and the safety zones are aimed mostly at the stranger-danger kinds of things and that while those are horrendous whenever they occur, they are a tiny percentage," Ritchie said. "We are spending all our time focusing on those while there are thousands of children being sexually abused in their own homes and at acquaintances' homes. We would like to see more effort in preventing those kinds of abuse."

Aronberg said in an interview he is aware of the criticisms about residency restrictions, but thinks that creating a streamlined state law would be a good first step.

"It's been a big mess - a big confusing mess that has undermined public safety," he said of the different Florida counties and cities that have their own residency laws. "So we're going to create one statewide residency restriction so there's no more guesswork."

In Miami Beach, the first Florida city to enact a 2,500-foot barrier, the mayor's chief of staff greeted Aronberg's proposal with caution.

It's hard to say whether any sex crimes have been prevented by the city's law, which was passed in 2005, but at the same time it gives people a sense of security, AC Weinstein said.

"What are we supposed to say to someone in an apartment complex?" he said. "'Guess what? The state Legislature just relaxed the laws, you're going to have 14 convicted child molesters moving in?" ..more.. by NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune