It seems like a common-sense precaution to protect children: Prohibit sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school.

But that simple premise -- which has been law in Ohio since 2003 -- is quickly degenerating into a legislative free-for-all, fraught with unintended consequences, controversy and constitutional questions.

The Ohio and Kentucky supreme courts are poised this fall to decide if the laws are unconstitutional because they subject offenders to further punishment after they've served their sentences.

Meanwhile, evidence suggests residency restrictions may be counterproductive, forcing sex offenders underground and lulling parents into a false sense of security. Hamilton County sheriff's deputies, for example, have arrest warrants out for 49 sex offenders who should have registered their addresses -- but who have dropped out of sight.
Seven of them simply stopped registering after the city of Cincinnati told them they couldn't live within 1,000 feet of a school.

And there's this: As more areas become off-limits, sex offenders are being concentrated into neighborhoods with few schools and inexpensive housing, a Cincinnati Enquirer analysis of sex offender registration data shows.

Even if they're not a threat, a concentration of sex offenders is bad news for property values. One study by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests a sex offender moving into a neighborhood can reduce a home's value by $5,500.

"Just knowing they're there has added this extra stress," said Amber Shock, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter in White Oak.

Shock found out via the Internet that two sex offenders live in a nearby house at Blue Rock and Cheviot roads -- which the neighborhood children walk past on their way to a soft-serve ice cream stand.

"People think this isn't a big deal, but it is a big deal. Registered sex offenders will do it again, and maybe next time they'll kill someone," she said. Shock said she realizes most sex offenses are committed by someone known to the family -- "We all watch Oprah" -- and that sex offenders have to live somewhere.

"Whether they live next to a park or a school or whatever, they're going to be with us. They've done their time and they're out," she said. "But when you become a mom, things totally change.

"You look at the world so different. Maybe they should all go to a mental hospital."

Off-limits areas expand

Restrictions on where sex offenders can live have been proliferating nationally since the 1990s.

Ohio requires every sex offender -- as determined by a judge at a sentencing hearing -- to register an address with the sheriff of the county of residence. Registrations, with photographs, are available on a Web site maintained by the Ohio Attorney General's Office.

In Ohio, sheriffs must then notify neighbors when the most serious classes of sex offenders -- sex predators and some repeat offenders -- move in next door. Ohio and Kentucky also restrict where sex offenders can live, typically barring them from within 1,000 feet of any school and some day-care centers. Kentucky has added playgrounds to the list.

The Cincinnati City Council approved further restrictions this year. Now, sex offenders also are prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of any recreation center, or any boys or girls club.

The effect: At least 60 percent of Cincinnati's housing units are off-limits to sex offenders, according to a study by the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission.

Cincinnati is by far the most aggressive jurisdiction in enforcing residency restrictions, filing 167 of the 198 lawsuits aimed at evicting offenders in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court since 2006.

The law can be frustrating to enforce.

Since serving a year in prison for sexual battery in 2005, Willie Grimes, 41, has been caught three times living within 1,000 feet of a school -- twice in Price Hill and once in Bond Hill. He stopped registering altogether, prompting felony charges against him.

In all, at least 34 Hamilton County sex offenders have been ordered to move more than once, only to move into a new neighborhood within 1,000 feet of a school, The Enquirer found.

Still, the lawsuits are at least partially effective in forcing sex offenders out of the city altogether.

At least 19 moved out of Hamilton County or out of the state, and at least 17 moved to Hamilton County suburbs, including Springfield, Colerain, Miami and Anderson townships.

Movement into the suburbs was somewhat offset by suburban sex offenders -- faced with lawsuits from the county prosecutor -- moving into the city. There were at least 10 of those cases.

The Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office has filed 29 cases in jurisdictions such as Colerain Township, Elmwood Place, North College Hill and Springfield Township.

As of Friday, 49 sex offenders had stopped registering with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. Eighteen are classified as sex predators.

"It's like sticking a finger in a dike, with the mobility people have today," said Clermont County Sheriff A.J. "Tim" Rodenberg. He says deputies check up on sex offenders only to find that a registered address doesn't even exist, or that relatives haven't seen the offender in years.

'Gilligan's Island'

And so the one-upsmanship begins.

Responding to suburban pressure, Hamilton County commissioners have ordered a study of the problem of sex offenders moving to the suburbs.

Cincinnati's hard line also has prompted at least two townships -- Anderson and Sycamore -- to impose more restrictions there in the past two months. The townships say they have no choice: If Cincinnati's new law has the effect of pushing sex offenders out, the suburbs must counter with restrictions of their own.

Anderson Township says sex offenders can't live within 1,000 feet of parks and playgrounds. Sycamore Township followed with a 1,000-foot ban around day-care centers, playgrounds, parks, swimming pools, athletic fields and churches.

In the past six months, Ohio lawmakers have generated at least 70 bills, resolutions and legislative reports dealing with the issue of where sex offenders can and cannot live.

State Rep. Bill Seitz, a Republican, said he's worried that a "sort of arms race" among local governments ultimately could mean sex offenders "can't live anywhere except Gilligan's Island."

"Don't paint me as pro-sex offender," said Seitz, who wrote Ohio's law requiring neighbors to be notified of the most serious sex offenders. "It is a difficult political issue. Nobody wants to be on the side of the sex offender. Those of us who are counseling caution in this area are doing so because we don't want the whole scheme to be ruled unconstitutional. It teeters to the point of tipping the whole apple cart, and I don't want to do that."

Going to extremes

The competition among cities to restrict sex offenders can take extreme forms.

The city of Reading passed an ordinance last year restricting sex offenders from within 2,000 feet of schools, day-care centers, public pools, parks, libraries and athletic fields. They encompassed virtually the entire land area of Reading.

In Northern Kentucky, local jurisdictions are on a playground-building binge.

Because sex offenders cannot live within 1,000 feet of a "publicly owned playground," authorities are getting requests from governments to reclassify vacant property as parks.

"What's happening with us is, all the little cities are saying, 'Here's a park, here's a park, here's a park,' " said Trisha Brush of the Northern Kentucky Regional Planning Commission. "Now a park is two pieces of playground equipment. Or a bench. They're taking any bit of green space and putting a bench there."

Sheriffs, who are responsible for checking up on sex offenders up to four times a year, say residency laws are taxing their resources.

"It's been a complete nightmare for us," Rodenberg said. The Clermont sheriff needs a full-time deputy to keep track of 259 registered sex offenders. "If the person is 1,010 feet away, does that mean the kids are safe? It's an artificial number. There was no research that went into this."

Proponents of residency laws say they aren't much different than drug-free zones that increase penalties for selling drugs near schools.

The Jacob Wetterling Foundation helped pass the nation's first laws, in 1994, requiring sex offenders to register their home addresses. But Executive Director Nancy Sabin said research has shown no benefit to the laws, and they might make parents feel safe when they shouldn't.

The attention on convicted sex offenders ignores the fact that 90 percent of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by relatives or others who are invited into the home, she said.

"I don't want people looking for the wrong monsters," Sabin said. "I want them to be vigilant on the 10 percent. I want them to be really vigilant on the 90."