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From community notification measures to residency restrictions, laws regulating sex offenders are explicitly spatial. However, the spatial dynamics of sex offenders' behaviors and the physical contexts in which they live are not well documented; therefore, we do not know whether the assumptions underlying these laws are tenable. This study explores the spatial patterns of the residences of registered sex offender in Chicago, and the types of neighborhoods in which they live. Drawing upon the extensive literature regarding the neighborhood contexts of crime within Chicago, this project uses data from the Illinois sex offender registry, the 2000 census, and the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine the influence of social disorganization, collective efficacy, formal control, residency restrictions, and spatial autocorrelation on the distribution of registered sex offenders' residences across Chicago neighborhoods. Results from multivariate regression analysis indicate sex offenders are more likely to reside in areas that exhibit particular characteristics, but race plays an important role in terms of which characteristics are influential. Support is found for the inclusion of controls for spatial autocorrelation in analytical models. This paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of neighborhood context for reintegration, recidivism, and formal and informal social control. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]