An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault

NCJ-163392 Revised Feb. 1997:

Sex offenses and Murder:
After the latter half of the 1980's, the percentage of all murders with known circumstances in which investigators identified rape or another sex offense as the principal circumstance of the murder has declined from about 2% of murders to less than 1%.

Between 1976 and 1994 there were an estimated 405,089 murders in the United States. Of these, the circumstances surrounding the murder are known in 317,925, or 78.5%. Among the cases with known circumstances, an estimated 4,807, or 1.5%, were classified as involving rape or another sex offense. (Note: Over 18 years)

Offenders in sexual assault murders are about 6 years younger on average than other murderers. Youth under 18 have accounted for about 10% of the sexual assault murders since 1976.

Page 6 Sex Offenses and Offenders: An Analysis of Data on Rape
and Sexual Assault by Lawrence A. Greenfeld, Statistician, Bureau of Justice Statistics

An Examination of the Degree to Which Sex Offenders Kill

September 2006:

Abstract:
It seems clear that most of our current sex offender policies and those being proposed for the future are the result of sexually related homicides against children committed by previously convicted sex offenders. Given the enactment of these laws, one implicit legislative assumption emerges: that many, if not most, sex offenders go on to kill.

This study explores the assumption that sex offenders often kill their victims. Specifically, criminal history information from Illinois from 1990 to 1997 is analyzed to examine the degree to which sex offenders are charged with murder in conjunction with a sex crime and the likelihood of arrested sex offenders experiencing a future arrest for homicide.

These results are compared to those found for other types of nonsexual offenders. Findings indicate that sex offenders do not frequently commit murder, nor do they commit homicide at higher rates than other types of offenders.

For the remainder of this paper: by Lisa L. Sample (See also: Most Sex Offenders
Are Not Murderers, Sample)

eAdvocate Note: This paper, published just after Lawmakers were working on enacting the Adam Walsh Act, refutes Lawmakers claim, used to enact the Adam Walsh Act. i.e., that former sex offenders are more dangerous than other types of offenders and likely will kill victims.