One of the scariest situations for parents to face is having their child become victimized by a sexual offender. Although current laws make it nearly impossible for convicted sex offenders to live or work near places where children congregate, that doesn’t change the fact that they can live in neighborhoods where families live. It also doesn’t change the fact that a sexual offender, even with proper supervision and treatment, can easily become a repeat offender.
Statistics About Sex Offenders
1. The total number of registered sex offenders that are currently in the United States: 747,000.
2. 33% of the registered sex offenders that are in the US right now are under the supervision of a corrections agency.
3. The average age of a rapist is 31-years-old and 52.2% of them are white males.
4. An estimated 24% of those serving time for rape and 19% of those serving time for sexual assault had been on probation or parole at the time of their repeat offense.
5. Only 2% of the Catholic clergy sexual abusers were ever jailed, despite over 10,000 victims and an estimated 4,300 total abusers.
6. An adolescent sex offender who does not receive treatment will commit an estimated 380 sex crimes over their lifetime.
7. 1 out of every 2 child molestations that occurs are perpetrated by an adolescent male.
8. Offenders with a previous sex offense conviction have a 37% re-offense rate.
9. Rapists repeat their offenses at rates up to 35%.
10. Sex offenders who are attracted to boys are the most likely to re-offend in some sex crime which may include rape, molestation, or a violent act.
11. The percentage of second sex offenses that occur while the offender is living in a supervised community: 60%.
12. It costs $22,000 per year in order to incarcerate a sex offender.
13. For children between the ages of 12-15, about one third of all the sex offenses that occur are from a male perpetrator who is of the same age.
14. 43% of the sexual assaults that occur happen within a 6 hour window that begins at 6pm and ends at midnight.
15. The percentage of sex crimes that occur to children under the age of 6 by an adolescent under the age of 18: 40%.
16. The average amount of jail time that a sex offender will serve out of their average 8 year prison sentence: 3.5 years.
17. 30% of the children who are abused sexually will become sex offenders later on in their adult life.
18. Although two thirds of sex offenders during an interview state that they were abused as children, only 29% of them are found to be telling the truth during a lie detector test.
19. 80% of the girls who are sexually molested had a perpetrator that was someone which they new.
20. The percentage of boys who knew the perpetrator that molested them: 93%.
21. Approximately 47% of people are victimized by their family or their extended family.
22. Repeat sex offenders in one study used romantic relationships with women to gain access to the women’s children.
23. Only 2.7% of the total number of sex offenders are estimated to commit another sex crime after being released from jail.
24. The percentage of sex offenders that will commit another crime, non-sexual in nature, after being released from jail: 70%.
25. The state of Delaware has the highest rate of sex offenders, with a rate of 517 per 100,000 in general population.
26. It isn’t just men who are sex offenders. 2% of the sex offender registry in New York State are women.
27. Pennsylvania has the lowest rate of sexual offenders: 94 per 100,000.
28. Studies have found that contemporary cognitive-behavioral treatment does help to reduce rates of sexual re-offending by as much as 40%.
29. Over a 5 year period, recidivism rates can be as low as 14% in some jurisdictions.
30. First-time offenders are less likely to create a repeat sexual offense than those who have already committed a second or third repeat sexual offense.
31. Only 10% of all sex crimes actually result in a criminal conviction.
32. The cost savings per year to place a sex offender into a comprehensive treatment program instead of jail: $15,000 per offender.
33. The average number of victims for a pedophile who prefers boys over girls: over 100.
34. It is not unusual for a sex offender to spend years developing a trustworthy reputation so that they can be near children and commit an offense that many just cannot believe.
35. Only 33% of the sex offenses that occur to children between the ages of 12-19 are ever reported. This is half of the amount of sex offenses that are reported when the victim is between the ages of 35-49.
36. Although 50 percent of violent crime victims over the age of 12 contact police, only 36 percent of sexual assault victims over the age of 12 report the crime to authorities.
37. Only about 30% of rapes are ever reported to police. Research indicates that sex offenses are one of the most underreported crimes that happen.
Sex Offender Behaviors
No one is safe from the targets of a sex offender. Boys, girls, men, and women can all become victims of a sexual crime that leads to a lifetime of scars. There are signs that someone may become a sex offender or even be one, with or without a conviction on their record. There is a 1 in 4 chance that an exhibitionist will commit a sex offense at some point in their life.
One of the difficulties in tracking sex offender statistics, however, is the fact that different legal jurisdictions have different definitions of what makes it possible to become an offender. In the United States, someone can become a sex offender by being convicted for prostitution. Obscene content in a text message, such as sexting, can cause someone to become a sex offender. Then there are the offenses on children, molestation, rape, and other violent sexual assaults that we tend to focus upon as a society.
Facts About Occurrence
It is not automatic that a sex offender will ever commit another crime. The problem that households face today is that they do not know if the sex offender in their neighborhood will be one of the “good” ones or one of the “bad” ones. With the amount of registered sex offenders increasing and becoming part of our society, knowing these statistics is important for your protection, the safety of your children, and even for the safety of the sex offenders who are trying to make a new life for themselves.
Virtually every pedophile will become a child molester. Not every child molester, however, is actually a pedophile.
The Issues with the Statistics
The problem with sex offenses, as the data shows, is that most of them go unreported or unprosecuted. This tends to happen when the victim knows the offender on a personal level, which is almost always the case when it comes to a sexual offense. It cannot be a coincidence that the conviction rates are equal to the amount of cases that are perpetrated on strangers instead of someone who is known, a friend, or a family member.
Because there is such a hesitance to report a sexual crime, it is no surprise that a sex offender would be willing to spend years to create a reputation of trustworthiness within their community before committing a crime. If they are no longer a stranger to a family, there is a 9 in 10 chance that they won’t even be charged with the crime they committed. This is one reason why there are so many victims.
Shame may very well be the reason why boys are victimized so much more often than girls. Boys have a certain reputation in our society that they must fulfill in order to become a man. If they are molested or raped, then the perception is that this makes them less of a man. They were unable to protect themselves. What kind of man is unable to protect himself? That negative stigma, the victim blaming, needs to end if we are to stop seeing the high levels of victimization that we are currently seeing.
The best defense of all is to just be vigilant. Know who your neighbors happen to be and don’t allow your children to be around people in an unsupervised fashion. Although constant paranoia is not very healthy, taking common sense measures to protect yourself and your kids from harm isn’t paranoia at all. It is simply the way life happens to be today. Listen for your kids in the backyard. Don’t let them wander off in a store all alone. Keep self-defense measures close at hand when it is dark outside and you are all alone.
Being proactive may not stop every sex offender, but it may help to stop some sex crimes. Even if just one crime is prevented, that is one person who won’t have to live with a lifetime of scars.