Abstract:
This article will present data gathered by the authors through structured clinical interviews of 561 paraphiliacs regarding demographic characteristics, frequency and variety of deviant sexual acts, and number and characteristics of victims.
Results show that nonincarcerated sex offenders (1) are well educated and socioeconomically diverse; (2) report an average number of crimes and victims that is substantially higher than that represented in the current literature; and (3) sexually molest young boys with an incidence that is five times greater than the molestation of young girls.
The relevance of these findings is discussed. ..Source.. by GENE G. ABEL, Emory University School of Medicine AND JUDITH V. BECKER, Columbia University AND MARY MITTELMAN, Columbia University AND JERRY CUNNINGHAM-RATHNER, Columbia University AND JOANNE L. ROULEAU, Emory University AND WILLIAM D. MURPHY, University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences
Abel and his colleagues reported that adult sex offenders who were guaranteed anonymity disclosed having committed an average of 533 sex offenses over a 12-year-period before being detected (Abel, Becker, Cunningham-Rathner, Mittelman, and Rouleau, 1988; Abel, Becker, Mittelman, Cunningham-Rathner, Rouleau, and Murphy, 1987 'Self-Reported Sex Crimes of Nonincarcerated Paraphiliacs'). These findings prompted the authors to conclude that “arrest records of paraphiliacs do not provide a reliable indication of the true scope of paraphilic acts”. In another study, it was found that rapists given assurances that their responses would remain anonymous reported having six times more victims that were indentified from official records and that each of the child molesters in the study reported having hundreds of previously unknown sexual contacts with children (Weinrott and Saylor, 1991). The authors concluded that there is an “iceberg of undocumented offenses beneath the tip of official records”. Source: Recidivism and Reoffense Rates of Adult Sex Offenders
