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Duwe et al. / RESIDENTIAL PROXIMITY & SEX OFFENSE RECIDIVISM 491 information was available,61% (n =121) took place inside the offender’s residence. For the remaining 39% (n =76) who committed the offense outside of their residence, there was an inverse relationship between the offender residence–offense location distance and the number of offenses. That is, as the distance between the offender’s residence and the offense location increased, the number of offenses decreased. For example, 19% (n =38) of the offenses took place within 5 miles of the offender’s residence, 7% (n =14) within 6 to 10 miles,6% (n =12) within 11 to 20 miles, 4% (n =8) within 21 to 50 miles, and 2% (n =4) beyond 50 miles. However, relatively few of the offenses (9%) took place within 1 mile of the offender’s residence. Compared to the offender residence–offense location distance, estimating the distance between the offender’s residence and the first contact location was more difficult for sev- eral reasons. First, the address information regarding the specific location where offenders first established contact with their victims was frequently unavailable in the criminal com- plaint. Second, for some cases, geographic distance was irrelevant in that several offenders first established contact over the telephone (one even while incarcerated for the prior sex offense) or the Internet (i.e., dating personals). Finally, and perhaps most important, the majority of the offenders knew their victims at the time of the offense, often for some time before the crime took place. For example, determining the specific location where an TABLE 1: Location, Distance, and Victim–Offender Relationship of Sex Reoffenses Number % Location of offense Offender’s residence 76 33.9 Victim’s residence 49 21.9 Shared residence 45 20.1 Residence of acquaintance/family member 15 6.7 Other residence (e.g., hotel room) 6 2.7 Exterior public location 28 12.5 Interior public location 6 2.2 Total 224 100.0 Distance between offender’s residence and offense location Same offender residence/offense location 76 38.6 Same victim–offender residence/offense location 45 22.8 Less than 1 mile 18 9.1 1–5 miles 20 10.2 6–10 miles 14 7.1 11–20 miles 12 6.1 21–50 miles 8 4.1 More than 50 miles 4 2.0 Total 197 100.0 Victim–offender Relationship Stranger 48 21.4 Acquaintance/other known 51 22.8 Babysitter 13 5.8 Neighbor 8 3.6 “Romantic/dating” 13 5.8 Friend of family 20 8.9 Significant other’s son or daughter 39 17.4 Family/biological 32 14.3 Total 224 100.0 at University of British Columbia Library on April 27, 2010 http://cjb.sagepub.comDownloaded from