Want to stop repeat sexual offenders? Solution? Cut off what ever ails them. Is that enough of a deterrant………….

The High Cost of Sex Offender Mythology

According to a report from the New York Department of Correctional Services, between 1985 and 2001 a total of 11,898 sex offenders were released from New York State prisons. Only 253 of these (2.1%) were returned to prison for new sex crimes within three years of their release. These figures will be shocking to many in the public and even to many lawmakers who have bought into the mythology of the high rate of sex offender recidivism.

Make no mistake, “bought in” is the appropriate description. Civil confinement of sex offenders in New York State is estimated to cost $81 million in its first year. In the debate in the New York State Assembly, Peter Rivera referred to estimated costs in out years of $650 million per year. Other states have found that initial estimates have been lower than actual costs. Their experience has been that almost no offender is ever released. The populations and the cost keep skyrocketing. The initial estimate is that New York will confine 100 offenders in the first year. At that rate, New York will civilly commit 1600 individuals over the next 16 years whom it deems unable to control their actions. Compare that figure to the 253 who were unable to control their actions over the aforementioned 16 year period.

The high cost of sex offender mythology only begins there. Economists Leigh Linden and Jonah Rockoff found in a North Carolina study that when a sex offender moves into a neighborhood, the value of houses within a one-tenth mile area around the sex offender’s home fall by 4 percent on average. They estimated that the presence of sex offenders has shrunk property values in Mecklenburg County, NC by about $58 million. One should keep those figures in mind, when one reads news of the recent court decision which will result in 4400 sex offenders being restored to the New York sex offender registry. None of these had previously been listed in the online registry. Due to a recent change in the law, the Level 2 (moderate risk) offenders now will be listed. These individuals had all been told that if they lived safely in the community for 10 years they would be dropped from the registry. They complied. New York State changed the law. Their neighbors will pay the cost in the loss of their property values. No one will be any safer.