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Interesting research on sex offender registration and home sales

By Douglas A. Berman

I just saw via SSRN this intriguing criminology paper titled "Estimating the Effect of Crime Risk on Property Values and Time on Market: Evidence from Megan?s Law in Virginia."  Here is the abstract: This paper explores the effect that living near a sex offender has on the marketability of one?s home. Specifically, we estimate the impact on a home?s sales price and the length of time it takes for the home to sell.  Since the 1994 passage of Sexual Offender Act (known as Megan?s Law), persons convicted of sex crimes have been required to notify local law enforcement about their current domicile and any change of address.  Since then, sex offenders? residencies have become publicly available information allowing anyone to lookup whether a sex offender resides nearby...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 15, 2010 (boomark / email).