A new study has been released this week which provides a snapshot of the nation's registered sex offender population. The study, published in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, analyzed data downloaded directly from online sex offender registries and included 445,127 individual sex offenders. Approximately 275,000 additional sex offenders are not listed on public registries because they have been assessed by their state to pose a low risk for reoffending.
The most notable finding is that despite claims by the US Marshals Service that 100,000 sex offenders are missing, the authors were able to identify only 17,688 whose whereabouts were unknown. A total of 5,349 offenders were officially listed as absconded, 1,264 were listed as missing or unable to be located, and 4,152 were listed as having failed to comply with registration requirements. An additional 6,923 were reported to be homeless or transient. "We discovered that approximately 4% of the sample might not have a valid address," said Jill Levenson, a psychology professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. "We found no evidence to support the frequently repeated statistic that 100,000 (or about 14%) of the nation's sex offenders are missing or unaccounted for."
Levenson conducted the study with Criminologists Alissa Ackerman from University of Washington Tacoma, Andrew Harris from University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Kristen Zgoba from the New Jersey Department of Corrections.
The authors found that 98% of sex offenders are male, and 66% are white. Blacks are over-represented on registries. The average age of an American sex offender is in his mid-40's. Approximately 12% of registered offenders appear to be incarcerated, civilly committed, deceased, or deported. Not all sex offenders listed on a state's registry are living in the community; in Florida, 47% of registrants are listed as either incarcerated or living in another state. About 14% of offenders nationwide are designated as sexually violent predators or high risk. Approximately 86% of the sample had minor victims, with about one-third having victims under 10 years old. About 87% of victims were female. ..Source.. (Index Shown) Press Release 5-12-11 by Dr. Jill Levenson
Ackerman, A. A., Harris, A. J., Levenson, J. S., & Zgoba, K. (2011). Who are the people in your neighborhood? A descriptive analysis of individuals on public sex offender registries. International Journal of Psychiatry and Law. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2011.04.001
2 comments:
Alas, another Factoid is shattered to bits. Exposed as, yet another lie. But of course the government and the do gooders like Walsh and ALLEN WOULD never lie to us! Oh no...
Why is there no mention of the thousands of teens on SO registers, stigmatized for life for sexting and other minor offences?
We needed a more detailed breakdown by type and seriousness of offence - such as sexting and 'Romeo and Juliet' offences where neither party to the fact identifies as a victim or wanted the criminal law to become involved in the first place.
Disproportionately Black - I don't believe for a second any cultural factor is in play. As with prison populations, this stat is a heads-up that poverty and discrimination are factors in play.
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