Sex Offender Residence Restrictions in Chicago: An Environmental Injustice?

• NCJ Number: 225013
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 25 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 647-673
• Author(s): Loraine A. Hughes; Keri B. Burchfield
• Date Published: December 2008
• Length: 27 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the extent to which differences in the physical structure of Chicago neighborhoods affected the efficacy and fairness of the city’s sex offender residence restrictions.

Abstract

These findings suggest that the physical structure of communities results in unintended consequences of sex offender residence restriction. Despite legal proscriptions, registered child sex offenders continue to be concentrated in disadvantaged neighborhoods and in relatively close proximity to prohibited sites. Rather than keeping child sex offenders from living near children, findings suggest that residence restrictions in Chicago do little more than superimpose another legal barrier to prisoner reentry, and further burden the very neighborhoods in which many of these offenders have no choice but to live. Data indicate a disproportionate share of the combined total of parks, schools, and daycares in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods of Chicago. Coupled with the fact that such neighborhoods tend to be smaller than their affluent counterparts, the greater distribution of objects in these places results in substantially more living space deemed off-limits to child sex offenders than in affluent neighborhoods. Even with the exclusion of daycares, which were especially prevalent in disadvantaged neighborhoods, slightly more than a 20 percent difference in prohibited space remained evident, with roughly half of the total land area in disadvantaged neighborhoods legally unavailable to child sex offenders. The findings support prior research in showing that disadvantaged neighborhoods are home to a disproportionate number of all child sex offenders; disadvantaged neighborhoods were found to have comparatively high rates of violators and violations as well as lower mean distances between child sex offenders and parks, schools, and daycares. Tables, references, and appendices A-B