In "Sex Offender Law and the Geography of Victimization (SSRN)," published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, they pointed out that most sex offenses are not committed by registered offenders, ...9-8-15 Maryland:
Amid a growing national debate over sex offender registries, researchers who studied years of crime data from Baltimore County have released a new finding: Neighborhoods with more registered sex offenders experienced fewer reported sex offenses.
The researchers from Princeton University and the University of Michigan, who chose Baltimore County because it was the first place they found where they could get all the data they sought, say the finding underscores misconceptions about where and how sex crimes are most likely to occur.
"Our assumptions about where risks are located and how to address sex offense victimization may well be premised on faulty assumptions," said J.J. Prescott, a Michigan law professor. "That's the reason why we give information and why people decide to not live in those communities — because the assumption is there's more risk there, and we don't find that to be true."
Sex offender registries, which grew in popularity during the 1990s, have faced legal challenges in recent years in Maryland and beyond.
Maryland removed roughly 1,800 names from its registry after a court ruled last year that it couldn't list people whose offenses predated the state's registry law.
