As I was investigating just how many (and where) sex offenders are located in the Greater Binghamton area (see last Thursday’s post), I decided to do an analysis of how many offenders there are per capita in our county compared with other counties in New York State. What I found was quite interesting. It seems that Broome County, home of Greater Binghamton, does not have the highest concentration of sex offenders per capita. There are at least two other counties with a higher percentage!

But equally interesting was my comparison of Upstate counties with New York City counties. The City, on average, has a much lower ratio of sex offenders than we do in good ole Upstate. Which leads me to ask: What are they doing that we should be doing!? A few prefatory comments for the chart below, so you understand the numbers:

• County shows the county name, and if the county name is different from the major city in that county, I have indicated the major city name in parenthesis;
• Population is the 2006 estimated population from the U.S. Census Bureau for the entire county;
• Expected is the number of sex offenders you would expect to see based on the statewide average of 9.35 offenders per 10,000 of population;
• Actual is the actual number of all sex offenders (Levels 1-3), taken from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services;
• %Above/Below indicates how much above the average or below the average the Actual number is.

Note: The list above is highly selective. Since I live and work in Broome County, I opted to take a look at the counties surrounding us, along with the major population centers in Upstate (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany), as well as the five boroughs of New York City. I did not analyze all counties in New York State. Perhaps someone else would be that ambitious!

What this shows is interesting. One would expect 183 offenders to live in Broome County, yet we have 413, which is about 2.25 times (or 125%) higher than what you would expect. The highest rate for the counties I examined was Steuben, home of Elmira, with a rate 2.75 times higher than “normal” for the number of sex offenders (178% above expected). All of the counties in Upstate I looked at are higher than normal. Most of them significantly higher. In the New York City area only the Bronx is higher than normal, and that’s only by 13%. The other four New York City counties are significantly lower than the normal rate of 9.35 offenders per 10,000 people. Why is that? Do you have a thought about it? Leave it in the comments.

Sources of data: U.S. Census Bureau, NYS Div. of Criminal Justice Services

Technorati Tags: Binghamton, Broome County, Steuben County, sex offenders, New York City