title: Too close for comfort? Registered sex offender spatial clustering and recidivistic sex crime arrest rates.
abstract: This study examined whether three measures of the spatial distribution of registered sex offenders (RSOs) in September 2010 were associated with differences in county-level rates of recidivistic sex crime arrests over the following year in 52 upstate New York counties. Results indicate that RSO clustering was positively associated with modest increases of recidivistic sex crime arrest rates, but results were significant only for adult victim sex crimes and only for certain types of RSO clustering. Under no circumstances, however, was increased RSO clustering associated with decreased rates of recidivistic sex crime arrests. The results of this study, combined with the limited prior research, suggest that RSO clustering has only a limited association with recidivistic sex crime arrest rates. This implies that housing policies such as residence restrictions may be useful in mitigating risk from some types of recidivistic sex crimes only to the extent that they result in more equitable distributions of RSOs within a county.
authors.affiliation: University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Socia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057237:Criminals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement; D008297:Male; D011640:Public Policy; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: child sexual abuse; reentry; residence restrictions; sex offender policy; sex offenses; sexual recidivism