No Place to Call Home: Rethinking Residency Restrictions for Sex Offenders
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NO PLACE TO CALL HOME: RETHINKING
RESIDENCY RESTRICTIONS FOR
SEX OFFENDERS
GINA PULS *
Abstract: Modem day sex offender legislation was first implemented in the early
1990s in response to a number of headline-grabbing incidents. Seeking to protect
families and children, federal and state legislators passed regulations aimed at
tracking, monitoring, and controlling released sex offenders. Akey portionof these
legislative developments include state and local level residency restrictions, which
prevent sex offenders from living within an established distance-usually 1000 to
2500 feet-of various places where children gather, such as schools and daycare
facilities. These laws have created enormous hardship for released sex offenders as
they attempt to reintegrate into society, and the effectiveness of these laws has in-
creasingly been rejected. This Note argues for the implementationof more sensible
sex offender legislation, including prioritizing individualized assessments over
blanket restrictions, making an exception to allow offenders to live with family, and
providing resources to help offenders comply with restrictions. Sex offender legis-
lation based upon false assumptions should no longer be the norm, and these re-
forms will help balance the goals of sex offender management with the empirical
data about offender reintegration.
INTRODUCTION
If a person wants to offend, it doesn 't matter how close he is to a conven-
ient place to find kids. '
Starting in 2013, the railroad tracks in the area ofNW 36th Court and NW
71st Street in Florida's Miami-Dade County became notorious for all of the
wrong reasons.2 The area has received a great amount of media attention be-
cause it has become a homeless encampment for a number of sex offenders
* Managing Editor, BOSTON COLLEGE JOURNAL OF LAW & SOCIAL JUSTICE, 2014-2015.
1 Jill S. Levenson & Leo P. Cotter, The Impact of Sex Offender Residence Restrictions: 1,000
Feet From Danger or One StepfromAbsurd?, 49 INT'L J. OFFENDER THERAPY & COMP. CRIMINOL-
OGY 168, 174 (2005). In a study seeking to describe the impact of residency restrictions on sex offend-
ers, one offender offered this opinion in regards to the perceived effectiveness of such legislation. See
id. at 168, 174.
2 Amended Complaint for Petitioners at 9, Doe v. Miami-Dade Cnty., No. 14-CV-23 933 (S.D.
Fla. Dec. 20, 2014); see Charles Rabin et al., Sex Offenders Forced from Allapattah Trailer Park,
Now in Hialeah, MIAMI HERALD (Aug. 8, 2013, 7:10 PM), http://www.miamiherald.com/news/
local/commiunity/miami-dade/articlel953953.html [http://perna.cc/F3MC-E9MD].
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No Place to Call Home: Rethinking Residency Restrictions for Sex Offenders
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