A Presentation by Chad Ottosubmitted to

Dr. Hongwei Dong, Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Geography and City & Regional Planning

California State University, Fresno

Background

Experience with coworker registered as a sex offender

“The hardest thing about being a sex offender is finding a home.”

Fresno does not comply with California State Laws

Serious Offense / Violent offenders most restricted

Forbidden from living with ¼ mile of any place where children gather

Schools, Playgrounds, Parks, etc.

Current City Laws: An offender can dwell wherever they chose!

What does this mean for your you?

What does this mean for your children?

Sources: (Fresno.gov,2014), (www.meganslaw.ca.gov), (Nieto & Jung, 2006, p. 17)

What if… What if California Residency Laws were upheld within

Fresno?

Question #1: Under California Residency Restriction Laws,

what portion of registered sex offenders within Fresno City

would be in violation of the law?

Question #2: Which areas of Fresno City would be suitable

for offenders to reside in, and which areas would legally be

off limits. How much area is available, and how much is not?

Methods1) Geocode addresses of offenders

2) Select by Attributes: Fresno County fromshapefile of CA counties, save selection as a layer file

3) Create Buffers around parks and schools

4) Merge school and park buffers together

5) Dissolve the merged buffer (Forbidden Zones)

6) Add field in attribute table and calculate area of forbidden zones

7) Erase forbidden zone from city polygon

8) Add field in attribute table and calculate area of safe zone

9) Select by location: offenders intersecting forbidden zone, save selection

as a layer file

10) Calculate percentage of violators

Data Resources

1) tl_2010_06_county10.shp

(Polygon vector file of California Counties)

2) citylim.shp

(Polygon vector file of Fresno City limits)

3) parks.shp

(Polygon vector file of Fresno City Parks)

4) schools.shp

(Polygon vector file of Fresno City Schools)

5) offenders.csv

(Excel CSV file derived from offender address listings)

6) offenders.shp

(Geocoded point vector file of offender address listings)

Data Resources (Contd.)

Sources:

www.meganslaw.ca.gov

(Sex offender addresses)

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/geo/shapefiles2010/layers.cgi

(California counties shapefile)

http://www.fresno.gov/Government/DepartmentDirectory/Infor

mationServices/GIS/Layers.htm

(All city level shapefiles)

Analysis Results

Total Area of Fresno: 294.536 square kilometers

Total amount of suitable residency areas: 191.9935 square kilometers

Total amount of forbidden areas: 102.543 square kilometers

Forbidden land = 34.81 %

Suitable land = 65.18 %

Analysis Results (contd.)

Fresno City Residency Restrictions

Under California State Law

Results (contd.)

Total amount of sex offenders with Fresno City: 724

Total amount of sex offenders in violation of California residency laws: 296

Violators = 40.88 %

Analysis Results (contd.)

Sex Offenders in Violation of

California State Residency Laws

Conclusions

Under California State Residency Laws, within Fresno City:

65.18% (191.99 square kilometers) of land is suitable as a

dwelling area for sex offenders

34.81% (102.54 square kilometers) of land is forbidden as a

dewlling area for sex offenders

40.88% of sex offenders (296) are living in violation of the law

Coworker’s statement not applicable to Fresno City

An abundance of land available to sex offenders would exist

under California Residency Laws

Enforcement of law would not create any undue hardship

Would not interfere with an offender’s mobility rights (“right to

travel”)

Simply put, enforcement of law would be practical and not

unfair

Conclusions (contd.)

Visual representation highlights a significant safety issue

Large majority of parks / schools are potentially dangerous

Provides solid evidence in favor of arguments for policy change

Helps you determine which park / school to take your child to

Helps you determine which areas you should personally

avoid

Can categorize a list of potential suspects for sexual assault

crimes committed in each associated park or school

Conclusions (contd.)

Originally wanted to include nonviolent offenders

Can come within 300ft of parks / schools

Confusion of Variable distance buffer

Apply to offenders and see if parks/ schools intersect?

Create nested buffer/ use separate shapefiles for violent and

nonviolent instead?

What percentage of forbidden lands are violators occupying?

Not achievable with geocoded point shapefile alone

Place point shapefile over shapefile of land parcels

Use land parcels to determine occupied area

Limitations / Future Prospects

What is the sum total of sex offenders cohabiting illegally?

Would Geocoding simply assign one point to both offenders?

Limitations / Future Prospects (contd.)

Works Cited

Fresno.gov. (2014). Answers to commonly asked questions from residents. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.fresno.gov/Government/DepartmentDirectory/Police/SexOffenderInfo/PublicFAQ.htm#q8ce76679bce05f3 [Accessed: 3 Mar 2014].

Fresno.gov. (2014). Sex offender information. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.fresno.gov/Government/DepartmentDirectory/Police/SexOffenderInfo/default.htm [Accessed: 3 Mar 2014].

Nieto, M., & Jung, D. California Research Bureau, (2006). The impact of residency restrictions on sex offenders and correctional management practices: A literature review. Retrieved from California State Library website: http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/06/08/06-008.pdf