Logo image
Sex Offender Residential Movement Patterns: A Markov Chain Analysis
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Sex Offender Residential Movement Patterns: A Markov Chain Analysis

Sergio J. Rey, Alan T. Murray, Tony H. Grubesic, Elizabeth Mack, Ran Wei, Luc Anselin and Marie Griffin
The Professional geographer, v 66(1)
02 Jan 2014

Abstract

Geography Social Sciences
This article introduces a new approach to the analysis of changes in sex offender residences over time. Using a Markov chain framework, we analyze residential movement patterns of registered sex offenders in Hamilton County, Ohio, over a three-year period (2005-2007). Results indicate a 46 percent reduction in offenders violating spatial restriction zone policy as compared to a counterfactual case where offenders move as a function of housing distributions. Strong legacy effects are also found as offenders previously in violation of restriction policies move into other restricted zones at a higher rate than offenders who were previously in compliance with the policy. Parcels that previously were home to registered offenders also continue to attract offenders in future periods. Although we find differences in the probabilities of attracting offenders for parcels outside and inside restricted zones that are consistent with offender restrictive policies, these differences are actually significantly smaller than what holds under the counterfactual. Parcels in restricted zones continue to attract offenders at a higher rate than expected, despite the policy restrictions.

Metrics

12 Record Views
6 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
#5 Gender Equality
#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Geography
Logo image