SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California is planning a study to try to figure out why the state has as many homeless sex offenders now as it did 2½ years ago, when a state Supreme Court ruling that overturned restrictions on where they could live was seen as a way to increase housing options and allow law enforcement to better track them.
Sex offenders must register with the state and provide new addresses when they move. Those who are homeless are less apt to keep their locations updated and more likely to commit new crimes.
The number of homeless offenders more than tripled after voters banned sex offenders from living near schools and parks a decade ago, and it was thought that the number would fall with the Supreme Court's March 2015 decision. But as of early July, there were 6,329 homeless sex offenders on the California Justice Department's sex offender registry -- down only a hair from the 6,422 in January 2015.
"It's a significant number to be concerned about," said Gerry Blasingame, a psychologist who treats abusers and victims and represents the California Coalition on Sexual Offending on the Sex Offender Management Board. "It's just a complicated issue, and it's difficult to ferret out the causes."
The state Sex Offender Management Board is forging ahead with the $25,000 study, which will be conducted through San Jose State University. Meanwhile, the Legislature is considering ending California's requirement that all sex offenders register for life. Proponents believe that makes it harder for offenders to get jobs and stay off the streets.
That was a sentiment state Supreme Court justices cited in overturning a component of Jessica's Law that banned sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks and other places where children gather. That requirement effectively blocked them from living in most parts of major California cities.
The justices agreed with experts who said stable homes, jobs and family ties are important to deter new crimes. Moreover, the court found that when offenders lack permanent homes, it's tougher for law enforcement officers to track their locations and activities.
A 2016 study by U.S. and Canadian researchers and California's Justice Department found that offenders who are transient were several times more likely to commit new sex crimes. Only about 6 percent of registered California sex offenders have no permanent address, but that group accounts for 19 percent of new sex crime arrests among those on probation and one-third among those on parole.
In 2014, two homeless Orange County sex offenders -- one on federal probation, the other on state parole -- were charged in the raping and killing of four women. Steven Dean Gordon has been sentenced to death, while Franc Cano is awaiting trial.
State parole officials abandoned the Jessica's Law housing limits after the Supreme Court's ruling, unless they found a direct connection between where a parolee lived and the underlying crime. That change left about three-quarters of the state's previously restricted sex offender parolees free to live where they pleased, and yet the homeless population has remained static.
Janice Bellucci, an attorney and president of California Reform Sex Offender Laws, sued 23 Southern California cities over that issue, and all but seven have since revised or repealed their ordinances. In April, she warned another 50 cities that they could be sued if they don't comply.
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation President Michael Rushford, whose organization advocates for crime victims, said the high number of sex offenders on the street may be a symptom of California's recent reductions in criminal penalties to reduce prison overcrowding.
"I guess this is just kind of what you get when you just continually loosen the cuffs on these guys," he said. Yet it's unclear if the housing ban deterred crime, Rushford said, in part because it restricted where offenders slept but left them free to spend their waking hours near schools or parks.
A Section on 07/30/2017