A potent and important prosecutorial statement against sex offender residency restrictions

February 9, 2006

I just received an extraordinary document released recently by the Iowa County Attorneys Association concerning sex offender residency restrictions in Iowa. The ICAA, as detailed here, is an organization of county prosecutors seeking “to promote the uniform and efficient administration of the criminal justice system.” As explained in its five-page statement (which can be downloaded below), the ICAA believes that the Iowa’s broad sex offender residency restriction “does not provide the protection that was originally intended and that the cost of enforcing the requirement and the unintended effects on families of offenders warrant replacing the restriction with more effective protective measure.”

The ICAA’s potent statement (which everyone should read in full) explains in great detail why Iowa’s broad sex offender residency restriction is ineffectual and harmful to public safety. Of course, persons impacted by residency restrictions have long argued their unfairness and some researchers have highlighted concerns about their efficacy. But the ICAA statement provides a thoughtful explanation from prosecutors as to why these laws are a bad idea and make our society less safe.

A Google news search reveals that the ICAA statement received some press attention a few weeks ago (see here and here), but not nearly as much as I think the statement merits. As detailed in this story from Iowa and another from Ohio, the ICAA statement can (and certainly should) significantly impact policy debates over the adoption of sex offender residency restrictions, which are raging in legislatures and local communities nationwide. Moreover, I think the ICAA statement could (and perhaps should) significantly impact constitutional challenges to residency restrictions. The statement suggests to me that overly broad residency restrictions ought not even survive rational basis review when subject to serious constitutional scrutiny.

Download iowa_prosecutors_statement_on_sex_offenders.pdf

Related posts on the constitutionality of, and policy deabtes over, sex offender residency restrictions:

UPDATE: Dan Filler over at Concurring Opinions has this thoughtful amplification of points raised above. I must especially concur with this statement from Dan: “It is heartening to see rational policy debate creep into what has otherwise been the land of moral panic.”