Buying home in south/sw Austin; looking at sex offender map (Shady Hollow: sex offenders, crime)

[nina_online]

Some of you know we are selling our central Austin home an moving to south or southwest Austin (west of Manchaca, south of 290/BenWhite, probably south of Wm Cannon).

We have been exploring in particular:
-- West of Mopac: everything north of Circle C and south of Travis Country
-- Sendera and Deer Haven
-- Grand Oaks (NW corner of Manchaca and Davis)
-- I would love to live in old Shady Hollow but husband is nixing it due to rush-hour congestion.

We were looking at the sex offender map* last night with a particular interest in offenses against children (as we have children) and there is a cluster of pedophile sex offenders in Maple Run, which is close to the Sendera pool and playground. Cherry Creek also has quite a few.

I've read all the threads I could find on housing in SW Austin, and although there have been discussions on crime in general and on flood plain issues, I hadn't seen a thread on sex crimes against children.

I have to saw this is affecting what neighborhoods we will be looking in.

*[I used National Sex Offender Registry - Family Watchdog but, atleast on FireFox for the Mac, the map refresh is a major pain. Anyone know of a better map-based tool?]

[infoseeker2010]

Originally Posted by nina_online

Some of you know we are selling our central Austin home an moving to south or southwest Austin (west of Manchaca, south of 290/BenWhite, probably south of Wm Cannon).

We have been exploring in particular:
-- West of Mopac: everything north of Circle C and south of Travis Country
-- Sendera and Deer Haven
-- Grand Oaks (NW corner of Manchaca and Davis)
-- I would love to live in old Shady Hollow but husband is nixing it due to rush-hour congestion.

We were looking at the sex offender map* last night with a particular interest in offenses against children (as we have children) and there is a cluster of pedophile sex offenders in Maple Run, which is close to the Sendera pool and playground. Cherry Creek also has quite a few.

I've read all the threads I could find on housing in SW Austin, and although there have been discussions on crime in general and on flood plain issues, I hadn't seen a thread on sex crimes against children.

I have to saw this is affecting what neighborhoods we will be looking in.

*[I used National Sex Offender Registry - Family Watchdog but, atleast on FireFox for the Mac, the map refresh is a major pain. Anyone know of a better map-based tool?]

When we purchased a home near Shady Hollow, I googled and looked at almost all available results. And honestly it didn't look promising. Southwest Austin and for that matter entire Austin has too many sex offenders. I don't think so that I narrowed the search based on Child Sex Offender, but still the numbers were high for any neighborhood.

[austinnerd]

The DPS has a sex offender registry. Can't speak to whether or not it's any better than the one you looked at though. I know that in my neck of the woods, that folks in the registry tend to be clustered, esp in certain apt complexes.

[infoseeker2010]

Originally Posted by austinnerd

The DPS has a sex offender registry. Can't speak to whether or not it's any better than the one you looked at though. I know that in my neck of the woods, that folks in the registry tend to be clustered, esp in certain apt complexes.

yes this is a good website. Put 3-4 addresses in different areas and found 20-30 offenders in 2 mile radius

[jobert]

Crime is also another important factor to look at. Here is an interactive map:

Sendera: krimelabb 2011

Circle C: http://www.krimelabb.com/_basic/view...&maptype=byzip

Shady Hollow: http://www.krimelabb.com/_basic/view...&maptype=byzip

[centralaustinite]

Frankly, I think such registries are useless! They give you enough information to panic but not enough to make informed decisions and asses the real risk!

There is all sorts of "noise" in the data that do not represent a threat (19 year old with a 15 year old girlfriend).

PLUS, the actual threat of childhood sex abuse is not from strangers (incredibly rare) but from people you know and who know your child! Worry less about strangers in the neighborhood and more about coaches, teachers, ministers, babysitters, relatives, etc.

[infoseeker2010]

yep that is a thing to look for too.

I have setup alert in spot crime within 2 miles of my home..

[llkltk]

Enter Central Austin and you will find a ton of sex offenders. They live everywhere in Austin. I don't think there is ever going to be a magical neighborhood that doesn't have any. Unless you live on a farm out in the middle of nowhere. It's a sick, cruel world.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Frankly, I think such registries are useless! They give you enough information to panic but not enough to make informed decisions and asses the real risk!

There is all sorts of "noise" in the data that do not represent a threat (19 year old with a 15 year old girlfriend).

PLUS, the actual threat of childhood sex abuse is not from strangers (incredibly rare) but from people you know and who know your child! Worry less about strangers in the neighborhood and more about coaches, teachers, ministers, babysitters, relatives, etc.

Exactly. Or, put another way:

"If I live in a home with no sex offenders living nearby, have I just reduced the odds that something bad will happen to my child?"

Answer: absolutely not. You'd be uninformed to think so.

In order to make that determination, you'd need to mash up a map of where offenses actually occur with a map of where offenders live. Low and behold, most children are sexually assaulted/abused in their own homes by people the family trusted to be alone with the child.

Statistically, the location of a home is less relevant than the family, friends and acquaintances that have unsupervised access to the child.

Also, as CentralAustinite mentioned, if you drill down into the stats, many of these "offenders" were teens with consenting younger teens, which is why we now have the two-year rule that says an 18 year old with a 16 year old is not an offense, but a 19 year old with a 16 year old is.

Finally, many of these offenders were one-time "exposure" cases. Some drunk frat boy peeing in an alley off 6th street without concealing himself properly and, next thing you know, he's guilty of indecent exposure and forever a sex offender.

Want to protect your kid? Know the real stats, how to interpret them, and be aware the real methods of effective prevention. Cruising online maps of offender addresses and making housing choices based on that is a complete, and utter, waste of time.

Steve

[nina_online]

It is interesting to read different perspectives on this issue.

I actually did look at each and every one (I don't know why the assumption is that I didn't), and wrote down the age of the adult when the crime was committed, how long ago, and the age of the child. A case of 30y/5yo is very different from a 19yo/16yo. Actually, the age of the child is the most important to me. There are a number of cases in that cluster where the child was 5ish years old. Of course, there are no details provided as to how the offender got access to the child.

I'm not saying it can't happen anywhere, but there are no registered sex offenders in my current west/central Austin neighborhood, and the next closest is a 28/17 case. Westlake inside 360 has none. It is also accurate to say that the distribution is not even across the city. Not trying to make a big statement here, but those are the facts.

My gut tells me that an important factor is how much the neighborhood looks out for strangers, etc. For example, there was the thread about the white truck in Circle C, and how many neighbors called the police every time they saw a white truck.

I'm still thinking about how important these maps are to me, but I will say that at minimum I don't think I'd buy on the same street as a child sex offender. Not exactly the kind of neighbor I want, and although you can't choose your neighbors, given the choice to avoid a bad apple, I would take it.