It’s a chilling image: the sex predator skulking in the shadows of a swing set, waiting to snatch a vulnerable child.
Over
the past two decades, that scenario has led to a wave of laws around
the country restricting where people convicted of sex offenses may live —
in many cases, no closer than 2,500 feet from schools, playgrounds,
parks or other areas where children gather. In some places, these
“predator-free zones” put an entire town or county off limits, sometimes
for life, even for those whose offenses had nothing to do with
children.