City of decatur = 40 sex offenders per square mile??? (Sandy Springs: crime, living in)

[Apeman007]

Can anybody help me understand this data?

According to city-data and the decatur police department, decatur is 4 square miles with 18,000 residents.

City-data said the following: "According to our research there were 159 registered sex offenders living in Decatur, Georgia in early 2007.
The ratio of number of residents in Decatur to the number of sex offenders is 119 to 1."
I have researched other sites and they quote a number of 260 which is even higher.

City data goes on to say that in this 4 square mile city, there is 40 registered sex offenders per square mile which is like an incredible amount of offenders not even expected at a prison.

I heard that the city of decatur is a family type environment but the govt. stats are unbeliveable.

Forty registered sex criminals in a square mile is like an incredible amount of people, surely this must be a mis-print.

???

[City Fanatic]

What is considered Decatur probably incorporates unincorporated Decatur. Hence, areas like Candler Road and all points of south and East Decatur along I-20 are included in the statistic. The data was probably compiled by zip code. If we're talking about the actual city of Decatur, it's probably lower, and very low in the northern parts of the actual city of Decatur.

[tdatl]

there's an extended-stay place on Church St. My wife says she used to get some email alerts whenever sex offenders would move to the area, & she said they always came from this place.

[Iconographer]

This guy has an agenda re: Decatur and is just digging right now. I suggest ignoring this.

[netdragon]

With over 2000 per sq mile, that isn't many. Keep in mind that what qualifies someone as a sex offender is a broad range of crimes.

[Sandy Springs Rep.]

Originally Posted by netdragon

Keep in mind that what qualifies someone as a sex offender is a broad range of crimes.

Exactly. 80% of the people on those stupid sex offender lists aren't really sex offenders. Rapists and child molesters are a small minority of the people on those lists.

Sex laws: Unjust and ineffective | The Economist

Illiberal politics: America's unjust sex laws | The Economist

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by Sandy Springs Rep.

Exactly. 80% of the people on those stupid sex offender lists aren't really sex offenders. Rapists and child molesters are a small minority of the people on those lists.

True.

The way the current laws are, everyone who is on a sex offender list is bunched in together into the whole group and put online. Many times when you see "200 sex offenders in your area", it doesn't mean that there are 200 child molesters in your area - it just means that 200 people who were convicted of whatever falls into a sex crime live in that area, and many of them would not necessarily be considered a risk to you or your family.

Example: Dumb 19 year old boy dates a 15 year old girl (happens a lot especially in rural areas). Dad or girl gets mad, boy gets arrested. Boy winds up on sex offender list for "statutory rape" (or similar). It doesn't mean the boy is a danger to young children or women walking on the street at night. Example 2: Domestic issue - husband or boyfriend is far too aggressive in making wife/girlfriend engage in sex. She presses charges, and he's convicted of rape. Again, bad scene, but he's not a "sexual predator" regarding kids or women in general as it was a domestic issue. Yet once again, he'll be put into the same sex offender list as those who DID molest kids or randomly rape women, etc.

As an added note, for every real sex offender that's caught and on the list, there are probably 3-4 or more who do it who aren't caught, and many times those in question are relatives or close friends of the victim more often than random strangers.

So folks shouldn't just go by sheer numbers when they read the stats on a community. Though those numbers may be technically right, in terms of sex offender lists, they don't tell the whole story unless you read the file of each one on the list.