Sex in the Cowboy State

Kerry Howley | February 23, 2007

For the sex offender on the move, Wyoming is looking pretty sweet right now:

"We don't want to become the playground for sex offenders," Attorney General Pat Crank said. "But there must be something that sex offenders are seeing. Otherwise they wouldn't be moving here in the kind of numbers that we seem to be seeing."

Wyoming is home to about 1,200 known sex offenders. That is not a large number for such a sparsely populated state. But law enforcement officials and legislators are worried because 56 percent of those offenders moved to Wyoming after being convicted somewhere else.

States and cities with onerous residency requirements (such as massive zones that exclude listed offenders) are pushing offenders into other localities. But Wyoming, late to the sex zone arms race, won't be a playground for long:

Wyoming lawmakers are pushing at least six different bills this session that aim to make Wyoming a less-welcoming place for convicted sex offenders.

Reason argues against sex-panic-inspired zoning, invites hatemail, here and here.