Kingston houses sex offenders
T O P S T O R Y - By Stacey Bowman, Staff Writer
Kingston has one of the highest concentrations of sex offenders out of Ontario’s urban centres, according to a report released by the Kingston Police examining sexual assaults in Kingston over the past five years.

The report said there are 83 active sex offenders, meaning those not in custody, and 155 non-active offenders who are serving their sentences in the Kingston area. The concentration of 72.27 active offenders per 100,000 residents is double the concentration of offenders in Toronto.

In the last five years, 13 wanted sex offenders were found by police in the city.

Staff Sgt. Greg Sands spoke with the Journal about the report’s implications. He said Kingston has always had a high number of offenders because of the detention centres in the area.

“This is nothing new,” Sands said. “For as long as penitentiaries have been here we’ve had more offenders on the street than most.”

Sands said that many of the registered offenders come from the detention centres in the area and remain in the community to take advantage of the great number of support networks available to them.

The high number of offenders registered in Kingston could be accounted for in part by a number of offenders reporting to the registry after being released from prison but before deciding where to live, said Det. Sgt. Bal Dhillon, head of the sexual assault unit of the Kingston Police.

Sands said the statistics show there is a greater risk of sexual attack for Kingston residents than for residents of other cities.

“The stats speak for themselves,” Sands said. “If you play the odds, then the more [offenders] there are, the greater the chance [of assaults occurring].”

He said the number of repeat sexual offenders is fairly high.

Director of Campus Security David Patterson said under one per cent of incidents reported to Campus Security involve a sexual offence.

Patterson told the Journal the number of sexual offence reports at Queen’s is no higher than at other Ontario universities.

“I would say that the aforementioned number of related offences at Queen’s is consistent with other Ontario universities of similar size,” Patterson said.

There have been no sexual assault reports this year to date and only one filed in 2003.

Ninety-three per cent of all sexual assaults reported to the Kingston Police in the last five years occurred in a private home and were committed by someone known to the victim.

Legislation enacted after the murder of 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson in 1988 by a Brampton pedophile released from Kingston Penitentiary led to the creation of the Ontario Sex Offender Registry.

The registry contains the name, birth date, current address and photo and record of offences of every sex offender convicted in a criminal court or found not criminally responsible for a sex offence by reason of a mental disorder.

The registry is only accessible to police services. Campus Security is not made privy to the addresses of offenders who might be residing in the area around campus.

Under the Police Services Act, police chiefs do have the power to publicly disclose information about an offender who is considered to pose significance risk to the community.

“Mainly you’re looking at somebody who’s involved that is a stranger,” Sands said. “If the attacker is known to the victim, they’re less likely to grab someone off the street.”

However, an attack does not need to occur for an offender’s name to be released, Sands said. Information about an offender could be publicly released upon the offender’s discharge from custody.

“You don’t need a new incident when they come out to put them in the paper,” Sands said. “Doctors and rehabilitation groups analyze the people and track their progress ... there are all kinds of indicators that the risks could be higher.”

Sands said the release of an offender’s name involves thorough deliberation and forethought.

“There’s a lot of consultation that goes into that decision. Each case is weighed,” Sands said. “If there’s any chance there’s a danger to the community then obviously we are responsible to the community ... we put the community first.”

Patterson said the police have released information to the community in the past when they were concerned for the safety of the public.

There is communication between the police and Campus Security when an incident is reported in the area, Patterson said.

“The police do periodically notify our department of these types of occurrences, which happen in close proximity to the Queen’s Campus,” Patterson said. “They also report suspicious persons and/or activity that may have an effect on the university community.”

Sex offenders convicted of an offence with a maximum sentence of 10 years or under must remain in the registry for 10 years. Those convicted of an offence with a sentence greater than 10 years are required to remain in the registry for life.

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The sex offender registry in Ontario seems to be a much more reasoned model than many in the United States, since only the police have access to the records. And the build-up of sex offenders does not appear to cause any serious problems other than paranoia in the general population.

DS