Orange County sex offender law picks up support but few convictions

Prosecutor Schroeder says "The effectiveness of this law will never show up on a statistic," Schroeder said in an interview. "Because a sex offender did not show up in a park, a child did not get raped or molested."

A statistic would be possible if they proved there was ever such a crime before enacting this one, but the problem with that is, there hasn't been such a crime in recorded history.

4-21-2012 California:

Nearly half of the county's cities have adopted the 'child safety zone' law that bans sex offenders from parks, beaches, playgrounds and hiking trails. Critics say it's an ineffective feel-good measure.

Susan Kang Schroeder ticked off the facts of the case: A man bought a 5-year-old girl from Vietnam, used her as a sex slave for more than a decade and forced her to invite over friends whom he molested during sleepovers. "She was made to do every possible sex act," Schroeder said with a bluntness she honed as a prosecutor.

But this wasn't a jury. It was the seven members of the Huntington Beach City Council. And if the aim of the Orange County district attorney's chief of staff was to grab their attention with the story of one of the county's most notorious pedophiles, it worked.

By night's end, Huntington Beach was the latest city in Orange County to jump aboard the movement to ban registered sex offenders from parks, beaches, playgrounds and hiking trails.

In 12 months, nearly half of the county's 34 cities have adopted laws aimed at turning parks and seashores into sanctuaries for children. They are among the most aggressive sex offender laws in California.

"Every time you turn around we have some kind of problem with people, with these sexual predators molesting our kids," Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas told civic leaders in Seal Beach before they unanimously adopted the ordinance.

There are more than 100 laws on the books in various cities and counties restricting where sex offenders can live or visit, said Jack Wallace, spokesman for the state's Sex Offender Management Board.

But Orange County is one of the first counties in the state to adopt a law banning all registered sex offenders — even those who haven't been convicted of a crime against children — from going to a county beach or spending time in a county park. It carries a six-month jail sentence or a $500 fine.

So far, however, the so-called child safety zone laws have resulted in few convictions, and in some cities, zero arrests. Critics contend the ordinance, which was first adopted by county supervisors and then shopped to individual cities, is an ineffective feel-good law designed to appeal to council members who don't want to seem soft on crime.

"This seems to me much closer to a political game of Trivial Pursuit in which the district attorney simply makes up rationales … which can't be evaluated, and relies on the fact that the targets of the legislation are unpopular," said Frank Zimring, a Berkeley law professor.

Supporters defend the ban and say the number of children saved by the laws will never be known.

"The effectiveness of this law will never show up on a statistic," Schroeder said in an interview. "Because a sex offender did not show up in a park, a child did not get raped or molested." ..For the remainder of this story: by Nicole Santa Cruz