Sex offender recidivism is much lower than what people think, according to an article by USA Fair, Inc.
The organization reports that over the last decade recidivism studies of sexual offenders were conducted by various federal and state agencies, or by academic researchers from grants assistance from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice.
Most recidivism rate reports look at a three-year period after release, because most reoffending behavior occurs within that time.
USA Fair describes itself as “Families Advocating an Intelligent Registry.”
It notes that various agencies define recidivism by using a variety of indicators such as, re-arrest, re-convictions or return to incarceration. Some studies report more than one of these statistics.
The recidivism rates below are for “new sex crimes” recidivism, as opposed to technical violations of parole or probation or convictions for other crimes such as drug offenses, the article reports.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: Study of 7,011 male sex offenders released from prison, re-convictions 5 percent after 3-year follow-up.
California Sex Offenders Management Board: A Study of 3,577 sex offenders released from CDCR prisons in 1997 and followed through the end of 2007, returned to custody due to new sex offense 3.8 percent.
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics: A study of 9,691 sex offenders released from prisons in 15 states in 1994 and followed for 3 years, sex crimes re-arrest Rate 5.3 percent, sex crime re-conviction rate 3.5 percent.
The other states showed in the report are Arizona, Minnesota, Alaska, Washington State, Ohio, South Carolina, Indiana, and New York. These had a re-arrest from 3.6 to 12 percent, and recidivism rate from 2.3 to 8 percent and re-conviction was from 2.7 to 10 percent.
