Sexual predators flock to energy boom towns
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By Rick Lovett
The American West is no longer wild, but lawlessness seems to be rising in the boom towns created as a result of expanding demand for oil and gas, according to a new study.
Oil and gas development has long drawn criticism for its environmental effects, which range from road-killed wildlife to unhealthy ozone levels. But a study published in Conservation Biology now shows that it has social effects, too. Focusing on just one aspect of lawlessness -- sexual predation -- the study has found that twice to three times as many sexual predators are flocking to the boom towns as to nearby tourist, ranching and farming communities.
The study looked at nine counties near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, examining the year-by-year trends in the number of registered sexual offenders there since 1997, when registrations first became mandatory. It also looked at the number of hospital beds in each county, which the authors used as a measure of the level of community services.
The researchers found that, per capita, the number of hospital beds was the same everywhere, but the number of sexual offenders had grown much more rapidly in the oil and gas towns than in those dependent on recreation or agriculture.
Jeffrey Jacquet, an energy-development sociologist at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, isn't surprised, although he wishes that the study had examined a larger geographical region. He has seen similar trends in the Marcellus shale natural-gas region in Pennsylvania (see report). "Crime has increased -- or at least there's a perception of increased crime," he says. "There's a trend that seems to replicate itself where there's this kind of development. So it would make sense that you would see things like increases in sexual predation."
Crime boom
Joel Berger, a biologist at the University of Montana in Missoula and the Wildlife Conservation Society, headquartered in New York, and lead author of the study, says that the work was inspired by an older study that found increases in wildlife poaching in oil and gas boom towns.
To some extent, both this and the high numbers of sex offenders might simply reflect the fact that sex offenders are overwhelmingly male and that oil and gas towns attract a disproportionate number of men. "I don't have hard data," he says, "but I know that both when I've been in bars and out in the gas fields it's struck me that there's a 10:1 gender ratio."
"We didn't adjust for that," he adds. "We just looked at the total rate of sexual offenders moving in." But, he says, from the town's perspective that doesn't matter. "This shows who's moving in, and that is what we care about, because the towns are attracting this element who have a pretty strong criminal background," he says.
Berger's coauthor, Jon Beckmann, a biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, argues that such changes come hand-in-hand with the effects traditionally deplored by environmentalists.
"We need to be concerned not only with the impacts on ecological communities, but also with society," he says. "We need to be aware that all these types of changes can occur, so that we're prepared and can best deal with them."
Historical problem
The problem is not limited to oil and gas towns either. "There's a whole body of literature that shows that mining boom towns undergo similar changes," Beckmann says.
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Berger adds that the same trends have been seen elsewhere, whether it's the western United States, the tar sands of Canada or Ecuador. "The lure of quick money carries some risk," he says.
Older mining booms faced their own versions of such problems. During the California Gold Rush, for example, mining camps could be very unruly. "Some mining towns were well known for raucous behaviour, prostitution, wild times," Berger says.
Darci Moore, curator of the California State Mining and Mineral Museum, in Mariposa, California, agrees. "There was a lot of drinking, a lot of gambling," she says. "That's how the miners, if they did make any money, tended to lose their money.
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7 Comments
Add CommentAren't registered sexual offenders often confronted with very limited options on where to live? Maybe boom towns have fewer restrictions in place, so they move there.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDrill baby Drill
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould it be that roughnecks tend to be less educated and therefore less restricted by social norms?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe there is a correlation between a lack of appreciation for a complex world and a lack of respect for themselves. If so, that might lead to a certain amount of alienation from the world. Potentially a sense of alienation would breed a level of disrespect that might lead to aggressive behavior toward the world in general. Further, that aggressive stance might lead to a need to physically dominate nature in general.
If a person developed this mind set in tandem with being treated badly by people, why would they have respect for people?
The basic problem with this article is that is unclear as to whether it’s reporting that sexual predation is occurring in these boom towns, or whether it’s reporting that many registered sex offenders are moving to these boom towns. It would seem that the second case might have been expected, since there is presumedly high demand for employees, regardless of their past history. In contrast, if, in the first case, high incidences of sex crimes are occurring, corrective action should be taken at once! It does make a difference, but this article fails to make it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with jtdwyer. Persons with criminal records have a far lower likelihood of finding employment than people without criminal records, especially in the present economic/jobs climate. Registered, convicted sex offenders have truly dismal prospects of employment. Oil, gas, and mining boom towns need people capable of work and often don't care about the worker's past. Men make up the majority of registered sex offenders, and men are far more likely to be attracted to oil, gas, and mining jobs than women. Taken together, it is not at all surprising to find that the numbers of registered sex offenders in oil, gas, and mining boom towns is rising dramatically. What is surprising is that the researchers don't make this connection.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that the above 2 posters are correct in noting that a boom industry will necessarily have a labor need that outstrips "normal" resources. This sets up a condition where "warm bodies are hired to keep the work going. I think that this sort of study should look at all boom industries, not just those in the extractive industry. The only difference that the mining or oil and gas industries have is that they tend to set up in smaller towns where their effects more easily overwhelm the local populace
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRoughnecks are no less educated than many any other groups of manual workers. For many, it's the beginning of a good career. There are plenty of "educated" people who have no respect for the rest of the world and no concern about being restricted by social norms. Wall Street is full of these types.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPredators who belong to wealthy, highly educated, well-connected groups have many ways to evade being caught. Having taught in a school with students from such a population, I've seen it happen more than once. It's frightening to see the law circumvented by this kind of scum. In my opinion, this problem is first cousin to the sociopathic behavior that caused the Wall Street meltdown. In any community, those who are financially less well off are more likely to be caught for any given crime.
Your opinion that less educated people are less restriced by social norms smacks of effete snobbery.