SEX OFFENDER n. generic term for all persons convicted of crimes involving sex, including rape, molestation, sexual harassment and pornography production or distribution. In mosst states convicted sex offenders are supposed to report to local police authorities, but many do not.

One who is convicted of a sex crime. Wow, do you have to be convicted of the crime to be guilty of it?

If you have a story about Sex Offenders you are willing to share with the world, please contact us three3sides@aol.com .

We want all families to know that SEX OFFENDERS do not care about their victims.

Sex Offender

Person convicted of a sexual offense such as rape (sexual assault), sexual contact, or lewdness. In some states sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex is classified as criminal. Some states house sex offenders together and offer specialized counseling programs in an effort to successfully treat such offenders and thus prevent recidivism. Some states require lifetime registration of offenders with law enforcement.

A sex offender (also sexual offender , sex abuser , or sexual abuser ) is a person who committed a sex crime, although what constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. In most jurisdictions, offenses include child sexual abuse, downloading child pornography, rape, and statutory rape. In much of the United States, public urination, mooning, streaking, and the failure to prevent one's own teenage children from engaging in otherwise consensual sexual activity also result being designated as a sex offender, requiring registration as such in publicly available, online lists. The term sexual predator is often used to describe severe or repeat sex offenders.

In the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries a convicted sex offender is often required to register with the respective jurisdiction's sex offender registry. These registry databases are frequently accessible to the public through the internet. Sexual offenders are also sometimes classified into levels. The highest level offenders generally must register as a sex offender for their entire lives, whereas low level offenders may only need to register for a limited time. As a label of identity it is used in criminal psychology.

In the United States, the term "sex offender" is defined on a state-by-state basis. Megan's Law is the law designed to punish sex offenders and reduce their ability to re-offend. The law is enacted and enforced on a state-by-state basis. Most U.S. states also place restrictions on where convicted sex offenders can live after their release, prohibiting residency within a designated distance of schools and daycare centers (usually 1,000 - 2,000 feet).

Reports of Juvenile Sex Offender Registrant Experiences [ citation needed ]

The following are quotes by parents about their children or offenders regarding how far the requirements of sex offender registration, treatment and panic have been allowed to go:

Male, 12: “My son was charged with "criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13." He was 12 when this happened. He performed oral sex on him. He has to register for life. At least that is my fear. Now we have the fear also that this new Jessica's Law will make it so he cannot go to school anymore.”

Male, 11: “He is looking at being put on the public registry when he turns 18, along with his picture...Because of the registry and the stigma which accompanies it, we have had suicides, attempted suicides and youths who are ready to give up.”

Male, 13: “The reason for placement was a sexual offense done when I was 13 in California. Basically I engaged in consensual sexual acts with 3 neighborhood boys ages 13, 11, and 8. Treatment involved putting a rubberband appearing contraption hooked up through a computer around your penis while you sat in a dark room with your pants to your ankles listening to various audio recording stories.”

Male, 6-10: “I was charged with rape of a child in the first degree and two counts of child molestation in the second degree. I was told it did not matter that most of the abuse had happened under the direction of my stepfather. It did not matter that I was between 6-10 at the time.”

Male, 14: “A police sergeant indicated that the sex was consensual. My son was very frightened, as the detective was shouting at him and had a gun. He did not write a confession. The detective wrote it for him. Approximately two weeks later, we received papers in the mail indicating that he was being charged with second degree sexual assault.”

Male, 14: “I came home from work and Matt was not home. I called and was told that he admitted to everything and was arrested. Matt didn't admit to anything, he was coerced into it. He is on lifetime probation and is never allowed to live at home again. He has been in homeless shelters and may be in one again.”

Male, 17: “My son was a registered sex offender because of an encounter he had with a 13 year old girl who misrepresented her age. Tony was literally kicked out of a sex offender's treatment program, because he chose to confront the leaders about trying to force him to lie. They said he had to have known her age even if she lied.”

Male, 18: “My son was convicted of sexual assault on a minor for consensual teenage sex...He had to sign a contract when he entered treatment agreeing to aversion therapy, penile plethysmograph, and lie detector tests. It also stipulated that therapy may involve masturbation.”

Other Examples of Unjust Registration [ citation needed ]

Georgia: A mother was convicted of being a “party to the crime of child molestation” because she allowed her 15-year-old daughter's 17 year old boyfriend to sleep over. Her daughter became pregnant as a result of that sleepover and her mother was found guilty for not doing enough to prevent it. The young couple later married but the bride's mother will spend the rest of her life publicly branded as a sex offender because she failed to prevent the "sexual abuse" of her teenage daughter.

Recidivism rates

Figures from a 1994 DOJ study on recidivism indicated that compared to non-sex offender felons, a sex offender was 4 times more likely to be rearrested for a sex crime (5.3% vs. 1.3%).

In 2007, the State Bureau of Investigation in North Carolina made significant changes to its sex offender registration system, including new search criteria that include an "offender status" search, enabling an explicit search for convicted sex offense recidivists in the sex offender database. Manual searches by county using the new criteria yield some of the lowest recidivist percentages ever disseminated by any law enforcement establishment. In the entire State of North Carolina, there are only 71 recidivists shown on the registry, if incarcerated offenders are included. Per-county results for "Registered" status offenders compared against "Recidivist" status offenders on the North Carolina registry yield actual convicted recidivist percentages ranging from zero to fractions of one percent.

According to the Office of Justice Programs of the United States Department of Justice:

In New York State, the recidivism rates have been shown to be lower than any other crime except murder.

Recidivism in general

For clarification: the 272,111 persons mentioned include all criminals released—not just sex offenders.

Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.
The 272,111 offenders discharged in 1994 accounted for nearly 4,877,000 arrest charges over their recorded careers.
Within 3 years of release, 2.5% of released rapists were rearrested for another rape, and 1.2% of those who had served time for homicide were arrested for a new homicide.
Sex offenders were less likely than non-sex offenders to be rearrested for any offense –– 43 percent of sex offenders versus 68 percent of non-sex offenders.
Sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison –– 5.3 percent of sex offenders versus 1.3 percent of non-sex offenders.

Sex offenders

On a given day in 1994 there were approximately 234,000 offenders convicted of rape or sexual assault under the care, custody, or control of corrections agencies; nearly 60% of these sex offenders are under conditional supervision in the community.
The median age of the victims of imprisoned sexual assaulters was less than 13 years old; the median age of rape victims was about 22 years.
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 the offense for which they were in State prison in 1991.
Of the 9,691 male sex offenders released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, 5.3% were rearrested for a new sex crime within 3 years of release.
Of released sex offenders who allegedly committed another sex crime, 40% perpetrated the new offense within a year or less from their prison discharge.

Child victimizers

Approximately 4,300 child molesters were released from prisons in 15 States in 1994. An estimated 3.3% of these 4,300 were rearrested for another sex crime against a child within 3 years of release from prison.
Among child molesters released from prison in 1994, 60% had been in prison for molesting a child 13 years old or younger.
Offenders who had victimized a child were on average 5 years older than the violent offenders who had committed their crimes against adults. Nearly 25% of child victimizers were age 40 or older, but about 10% of the inmates with adult victims fell in that age range.

Registries

A sex offender registry is a system in place in a number of jurisdictions designed to allow government authorities to keep track of the residence and activities of felony sex offenders, including those who have completed their criminal sentences. In some jurisdictions (especially in the United States), information in the registry is made available to the general public via a website or other means. In many jurisdictions registered sex offenders are subject to additional restrictions, including housing. Those on parole or probation may be subject to restrictions that don't apply to other parolees or probationers. Sometimes these include (or have been proposed to include) restrictions on being in the presence of minors, living in proximity to a school or day care center, or owning toys or other items of interest to minors.

Therapies

Behavior modification programs have been shown to reduce recidivism in sex offenders. Often such programs use principles of applied behavior analysis. Two such approaches from this line of research have promise. The first uses operant conditioning approaches which use reward and punishment to train new behavior such as problem solving and the second uses respondent conditioning procedures such as aversion therapy. Many of the behavior analysis programs use covert sensitization and/or odor aversion, which are both forms of aversion therapy and have had ethical challenges to them. Such programs are effective in lowering recidivism by 15-18 percent. The use of aversion procedures remains a controversy and is often discussed as an ethical issue related to the practice of behavior analysis.

Chemical castration is used in some countries and states to treat sex offenders, it is reversible once medication is stopped unlike physical castration.

Physical castration appears to be highly effective as, historically, it results in a 20-year re-offense rate of less than 2.3% vs. 80% in the untreated control group, according to a large 1963 study involving a total of 1036 sex offenders by the German researcher A. Langelüddeke, among others, much lower than what was otherwise expected compared to overall sex offender recidivism rates. Although considered to be a cruel and unusual punishment by many, physical castration does not otherwise effect the lifespan of men compared to uncastrated men.

Risk assessment

Therapists use various ways to test the dangerousness of sex offenders. Below are some tests used to determine a sex offenders risk to reoffend:

Sex Offender

Reports of Juvenile Sex Offender Registrant Experiences [ citation needed ]

Other Examples of Unjust Registration [ citation needed ]

Recidivism rates

Recidivism in general

Sex offenders

Child victimizers

Registries

Therapies

Risk assessment

See also

Articles

Laws

Monitoring, assessment, other

People

Shows & Organizations

References

External links