LAW EYES NEW RESIDENTIAL CODE FOR SEX OFFENDERS

PFMLIT ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS, ABOUT SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS, General, LAURA AHEARN AND PARENTS FOR MEGANS LAW, LEGISLATION, PFML, REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHERS GENERAL, REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS GENERAL, RESIDENCY RESTRICTION LAWS, STATE BY STATE NEW YORK

Newsday/Emi Endo

Registered sex offenders are prohibited from living within a quarter mile of schools, day carecenters and playgrounds under a bill signed into law by Suffolk County executive Steve Levy earlierthis week. Such regulations may reduce attacks by removing the daily eyeshot contact that a sexoffender can have with potential victims, said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents forMegan's Law, a victims' rights organization based in Stony Brook. Others, however, said merelypushing offenders into other areas without surveillance is not effective. Grier Weeks, executivedirector of the National Association to Protect Children, based in Asheville, North Carolina, said,These residency restriction laws are based upon the idea that sex predators lurk in parks oraround school grounds and that's rarely the case.

(New York)