TOWARDS MORE EFFECTIVE SEX OFFENSE LEGISLATION

Facts Versus Fears…Believing Versus Knowing
March 2007:

Recidivism is defined as repeat criminal behavior among offenders. Of all crimes, sex offenders are widely believed to have the highest level of recidivism. However, treatment professionals and criminologists have known for some time that only a small minority of sex offenders — once caught — will recommit another sex crime.

Although some pedophiles, before they are caught, have many victims, most have a single victim in or about their own family.

We all hope for the day when we can see fewer sex offenses and particularly fewer juvenile victims of such crimes. But so long as what we think we know about these types of crimes is based on myths and fear rather than facts, that day will never come. There are several myths that are widely believed that need to be debunked.

Over the past several decades, social scientists and criminologists have combed through an immense accumulation of data from hundreds of studies, which have tracked tens of thousands of individual sex offenders for long periods of time, some even for decades.

By 1994, 670 studies of sex offenders had been done and by the end of 2005 well over 700. As a way to comprehend the results from all of these studies, meta analysis has been used in some of these studies. What follows are some of the key findings from those massive efforts. ..more.. by NATIONAL CENTER ON INSTITUTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES, INC., 7222 Ambassador Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21244, Phone: 410.265.1490, Fax: 410.265.8078