KITCHENER - Downtown Kitchener has one of the densest concentrations of sex offenders in southern Ontario, according to data newly released by the Ministry of Correctional Services.

There were 38 registered sexual offenders among the 13,000 people living in downtown Kitchener - specifically in the area with postal codes starting with N2G, according to the data obtained by Global News. That works out to a rate of 293.82 offenders per 100,000 population, one of the highest in southern Ontario.

Global has posted an interactive map on its website, allowing anyone to punch in a postal code and see how many sex offenders are registered as living there, and what the number of sex offenders per 100,000 people is.

The concentration of sex offenders in Waterloo Region varies.

In Cambridge, the small N3E postal code area - an industrial area south of Maple Grove Road to the Speed River - had no sexual offenders in a population of 317 people, while the highest density was in the N1R area in south Galt outside of the downtown, which had 48 offenders in a population of 41,728, for a rate of 115.3 per 100,000 population.

In Waterloo, the N2K postal code area in the east end had just two offenders in a population of 26,000 for a rate of 7.66, while the N2J area between King Street and the Conestoga Parkway had 13 offenders among 17,270 residents for a rate of 75.28.

In Kitchener, the area with the lowest rate was in southwest Kitchener, where there was just one offender among 7,500 residents for a rate of 13.35.

Generally, city centres had the highest concentrations of sex offenders, although the highest in the province was in northwestern Ontario, in a huge area that stretched from Kenora to Hudson Bay, where 122 offenders out of a population of 16,347 worked out to a rate of�746.

In southern Ontario, downtown Hamilton has the highest density of sex offenders, with 484.65. Other areas with high rates of sex offenders include Toronto's east downtown with 302.62; Kingston, where many federal penitentiaries are concentrated, had a rate of 439.59; the Vanier area of Ottawa had a rate of 268.56 while west London had a rate of 457.98.

"It doesn't surprise me that an urban downtown area of any kind would have a higher number of people convicted of sexual offences," said Eileen Henderson, who is project manager at Mennonite Central Committee Ontario for a successful program that works with sex offenders.

Many people just released from jail have limited funds, or are on social assistance, and downtowns tend to have more options for inexpensive housing such as rooming houses, she said.

As well, downtown areas usually are where many social service agencies and other agencies such as parole officers are located, said Joan Nandlal, the executive director of the John Howard Society of Waterloo-Wellington.

Kitchener Coun. Frank Etherington, whose Kitchener ward had the highest rate locally, said he was concerned that people might fixate on the high rate, without recognizing that downtown Kitchener has "excellent, high-quality neighbourhoods that appeal to all kinds of people at all kinds of income levels."

The data may shock or surprise some, said Olaf Heinzel, spokesperson for Waterloo Regional Police. "The reality is it's part of modern life. There are sexual offenders in Waterloo Region, just as there are in many communities, and we have strategies in place to manage sex offenders in our region."

Nandlal said the community is as safe today as it was before the data was released. "It doesn't mean we suddenly need to heighten our worry. We as a community have already been living and managing quite well."

While the registry may be of value to police, Henderson said she wasn't convinced it served the public interest much to release the data, even if it doesn't identify people or infringe on privacy.

"I think there are other ways of creating safer communities than saying we're going to name where people are. I think that's a simplistic approach to the conversation."

Most sex offences happen between people who know one another, Henderson noted, so identifying areas as having more or fewer offenders could give people a false sense of security or spark unfounded fears.

The program she is responsible for, Circles of Support and Accountability, has a proven track record using volunteers to help sex offenders avoid reoffending, but it is losing its federal funding in four years. Offenders in the program have been found to be 83 per cent less likely to commit another sexual offence than offenders without support.

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Global News had applied for the data under an Access to Information request and had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada to get the provincial Corrections Ministry to release the data. The ministry had argued that releasing the data would lead to the identification of sex offenders in the community, something the provincial privacy commissioner disputed.

Ontario's registry requires people convicted of various sexual offences to register their home address with police for either 10 years or life. Offenders who are pardoned can be taken off the registry.

In 2009, Ontario's Corrections Ministry claimed a 97 per cent compliance rate among offenders required to register. People required to register with the province are those convicted of a range of sexual offences, from sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, possession or production of child pornography, exposure and sexual assault.