Laws to Track Sex Offenders Encouraging Homelessness

Sex offenders called this makeshift camp under a Miami causeway home after they were kicked off a vacant lot adjacent to a children's center. (By David Adame -- Associated Press)

Similar complications face 31 other states that have passed residency restrictions. Georgia's Supreme Court last year struck down its law on the grounds that the 1,000-foot restriction violated property rights; the succeeding measure also faces a court challenge. Homeless offenders in Miami huddled nightly under a bridge after being kicked off a vacant lot neighboring a center for abused children.

In Iowa, the number of sex offenders whose whereabouts were unknown doubled after passage of residence restrictions.

"I don't think anybody has found any evidence that they contribute to safety," said Corwin Ritchie, head of the Iowa County Attorneys Association. "The main defenders are people who are just basing it on emotion, not good public policy. I think most legislators have figured that out in their hearts."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports about 100 child abductions nationwide a year. "And every one of those is incredibly tragic; there's just no doubt about it," Corwin said. "But it's a tiny number to justify doing these crazy things. And that's what they are. And these restrictions don't stop those crimes anyway."

Justice Department statistics show that 93 percent of child victims are molested by someone they know.

"There's this mythology that you have to know who this scary man is in the neighborhood who might hurt your child, when the reality is sex offenders are often people we know and love," said Jill Levenson, an associate professor at Lynn University in Florida and a researcher on sex offenders.

The attention paid convicted offenders is also easier to explain emotionally than statistically. Ten percent of sex crimes are committed by someone convicted of a previous sexual offense, and the chances of recidivism vary greatly, statistics show. Clinicians say the odds of an individual re-offending can be predicted with reasonable confidence by assessments that take into account age, offense, history and other variables. In the entire population of sex offenders, clinicians say, about 15 percent bear close watch.

"They need a place to live, obviously. We can't send them to the moon," said Tiffany Tsukuda, 23, a tenant in a large East L.A. apartment complex where 47 registered offenders were living at one time. "The problem is, from the criminal justice perspective, we warehouse. We don't treat.

"I really begin with reintegrating, but we're the opposite. We believe in shaming. You have an 'X' on you forever."

In fact, treatment is available to some. When he left prison, Wollschlager was dubbed a "violent sexual predator" and civilly committed to a state treatment center. Though in California, most such offenders decline to participate in treatment (perhaps because admissions in therapy to previously unknown offenses can be used as evidence in court), he was among a handful who graduated to open society. A judge approved release with initial monitoring by a security guard, who watched his tent from a nearby vehicle. Other restrictions may have been specified.

"Let's say you're a sex offender who regularly met your victims on the Internet," said Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health, which has so far released 13 offenders. "You won't be moving out with a computer."

Advocates who generally praise Proposition 83 for increasing penalties see false comfort in its post-release provisions.