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Based on our research, the majority of
legislation in the United States modeled on Megan’s Law which includes
residential restriction zones for convicted sex offenders employs a buffer
distance of one thousand feet (roughly three hundred metres) around child
congregation areas. Using this as a guide, we would present a three hundred
metre buffer as an optimal distance around these sites in Vancouver as well,
were similar legislation to be enacted in Canada. To visualize these areas we
produced a series of maps showing the average monthly rent prices by
Dissemination Area for each of the five different buffer distances. These maps
provide a visual indication of the residentially-zoned areas available for sex
offender residence by monthly rent, quantified in Table 1. At the three hundred metre buffer level just under
45% of the city’s total residentially-zoned area would be available for sex
offender residence (34,073.61 square kilometers).
To
further visually highlight our ‘optimal’ buffer distance (i.e. 300 metres), we
created a map displaying the remaining available residential areas for only the
lowest monthly rent category ($750 or less per month; see Low-Rent Map). As
discussed in much of our research, one of the issues with this type of
legislation is that much of the housing available to sex offenders outside the
restricted “no-live” zones can be largely unaffordable for offenders just
released from prison (5). Without means of income and newly-released from
prison, it can be difficult for these offenders to secure employment and,
arguably more importantly, to find affordable housing for their means. We thus
deemed it appropriate to include a map just showing ‘affordable’ housing (i.e.
the lowest average monthly rent category available, or less than $750 per month)
for the 300 metre buffer distance, assuming that many of the sex offenders
would take up residence in these more affordable areas.
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