Sex offender
Encyclopedia
A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime
. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a sexual nature. Some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. Some of the titles of crimes which usually result in a mandatory sex-offender classification are: second prostitution
conviction, sending or receiving obscene content in the form of SMS text messages—sexting
, relationships between young adults and teenagers have resulted in corruption of a minor, so long as the age between them is greater than one thousand and sixty days, if any sexual contact was made by the adult to the minor then child molestation has occurred. If sexual conduct occurred, unlawful sexual conduct involving a minor has occurred. Other serious offences are sexual assault
, statutory rape
, child sexual abuse
, rape
, sexual imposition, and pandering obscenity. Pandering obscenity offences range from the possession of the book, within the United States, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
by author John Cleland
, to digital child pornography
. In our modern world of technology, many jurisdictions are reforming their laws to prevent the over-prosecution of sex offenders and focusing on crimes involving a victim. The term sexual predator
is often used to describe a sex offender or any of the Tier offenders, however, only the category just below sexually violent sexual predator is reserved for a severe or repeated sex offender: sexual predator. The Adam Walsh Act (AWA) proposed to provide funding to each jurisdiction which would agree adopt its Act into their law. In the few jurisdictions which did accept this agreement, there are either Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III sex offenders. Individuals convicted of petty crimes not covered by the AWA are still liable to abide by the previous regulations denoting them as a sex offender (or habitual sex offender, sexual predator, sexually violent sexual predator, child-victim offender, etc.)
In the United States
, the United Kingdom
, and other countries, a convicted sex offender is often required to register with the respective jurisdiction's sex offender registry. In the U.S., registry databases are often open to the public. Sexual offenders are 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.
indicated that recidivism
rates among sex offenders was 5.3%; that is, about 1 in 19 of released sex offenders were later arrested for another sex crime. The same study mentioned that 68% of released non-sex offenders were rearrested for any crime (both sex and non-sex offenses), while 43% of the released sex offenders were rearrested for any crime (and 24% reconvicted).
A collection of official studies spanning the years 1983 to 2010 across all 50 states and the federal government has been assembled http://sexoffenderrecidivism.com/. This URL provides a spreadsheet and .zip file containing sources supporting the DOJ study, where the average recidivism of sex offenders committing new sex crimes since 1983 is approximately 9%, compared to the 42% average recidivism rate for all felony offenders committing any new felony offense.
According to the Office of Justice Programs
of the United States Department of Justice
, in New York State the recidivism rates for sex offenders have been shown to be lower than any other crime except murder. Another report from the OJP that studied recidivism of prisoners released in 1994 in 15 states accounting for two-thirds of all prisoners released in the United States that year, reached the same conclusion.
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.
Megan's Law
is 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).
Living as a convicted sex offender includes living by residence stipulations in accordance with known areas of child congregation. Guided by the Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act of 2007, sex offenders must steer clear of such “off-limit areas” as schools, bus stops, gyms, recreation centers, playgrounds, parks, swimming pools, libraries, nursing homes, and places of worship by five hundred to twenty five hundred feet. Yet, the residence stipulations vary individually from state to state on the intensity and specifics at hand. Some states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Washington, and Idaho, do not require sex offenders to move from their residence if a forbidden facility is built or law is enacted after the offender’s permanent placement at that particular residence. Such states as Minnesota and Oklahoma do not provide exclusions allowing alterations to residence restriction laws, but Oregon, on the other hand, does not take distance into contemplation, but instead, the primary occupancy of children on a permanent basis within the home in consideration of the offender’s allowance per their parole or probation officer’s decision on the matter (Laney).
Committing to a residence requires a convicted sex offender to be notified of local registration aspects by local law enforcement when convicted of the offense after January 1, 2005. The notification must be acted upon by the offender within five business days of receipt. If and when an offender is released from imprisonment they must confirm their registration status within five business days. Registration includes the offender’s sex, height, weight, date of birth, any identifying characteristics, specific statutes of their conviction, and even the accompaniment of a current photograph and set of fingerprints. Furthermore, an offender’s email addresses, chat room IDs, or instant messaging aliases must be surrendered to authorities. In Colorado, an offender is subject to reregistering on the basis of moving to a new location; changing their legal name, employment, volunteer, identifying information used online or enrollment status at a place of post-secondary education. Keeping up with modern times through the access of public information through the use of technology, a web-based registration list can be found on county websites, in any state, that name adult convicted sex offenders that are sexually violent predators convicted of unlawful sexual acts as a felony, crimes of violence, or by failure to register as required. Legally, “any person who is a sexually violent predator and any person who is convicted as an adult...has a duty to register for the remainder of his or her natural life” (Committee of Legal Services of the Colorado General Assembly). Exceptions to this include deferred sentencing for the offense or petition of the court for termination of registration to then possibly result in the offender reregistering themselves each and every ninety days up to and after their birthday for ‘commission of the offense’ (Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, Colorado Sex Offender Management Board).
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 behaviorism
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 therapy
procedures remains a controversy and is often discussed as an ethical issue related to the professional practice of behavior analysis
.
In 2007, the Texas State Auditor released a report showing that sex offenders who completed the Texas Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) were 61% less likely to commit a new crime.
Chemical castration
is used in some countries and states to treat sex offenders, it is reversible once medication is stopped unlike physical castration.
For sex offenders with severe or extreme paraphilias physical castration appears to be 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 affect the lifespan of men compared to uncastrated men.
Sex and the law
In general, laws proscribe acts which are considered either sexual abuse, or behavior that societies consider to be inappropriate and against the social norms. In addition, certain categories of activity may be considered crimes even if freely consented to...
. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a sexual nature. Some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. Some of the titles of crimes which usually result in a mandatory sex-offender classification are: second prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
conviction, sending or receiving obscene content in the form of SMS text messages—sexting
Sexting
Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones. The term was first popularized in early 21st century, and is a portmanteau of sex and texting, where the latter is meant in the wide sense of sending a text possibly with...
, relationships between young adults and teenagers have resulted in corruption of a minor, so long as the age between them is greater than one thousand and sixty days, if any sexual contact was made by the adult to the minor then child molestation has occurred. If sexual conduct occurred, unlawful sexual conduct involving a minor has occurred. Other serious offences are sexual assault
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
, statutory rape
Statutory rape
The phrase statutory rape is a term used in some legal jurisdictions to describe sexual activities where one participant is below the age required to legally consent to the behavior...
, child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, sexual imposition, and pandering obscenity. Pandering obscenity offences range from the possession of the book, within the United States, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
Fanny Hill
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England in 1748...
by author John Cleland
John Cleland
John Cleland was an English novelist most famous and infamous as the author of Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure....
, to digital child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
. In our modern world of technology, many jurisdictions are reforming their laws to prevent the over-prosecution of sex offenders and focusing on crimes involving a victim. The term sexual predator
Sexual predator
The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners...
is often used to describe a sex offender or any of the Tier offenders, however, only the category just below sexually violent sexual predator is reserved for a severe or repeated sex offender: sexual predator. The Adam Walsh Act (AWA) proposed to provide funding to each jurisdiction which would agree adopt its Act into their law. In the few jurisdictions which did accept this agreement, there are either Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III sex offenders. Individuals convicted of petty crimes not covered by the AWA are still liable to abide by the previous regulations denoting them as a sex offender (or habitual sex offender, sexual predator, sexually violent sexual predator, child-victim offender, etc.)
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and other countries, a convicted sex offender is often required to register with the respective jurisdiction's sex offender registry. In the U.S., registry databases are often open to the public. Sexual offenders are 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.
Recidivism rates
A 2002 study by the United States Department of JusticeUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
indicated that recidivism
Recidivism
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
rates among sex offenders was 5.3%; that is, about 1 in 19 of released sex offenders were later arrested for another sex crime. The same study mentioned that 68% of released non-sex offenders were rearrested for any crime (both sex and non-sex offenses), while 43% of the released sex offenders were rearrested for any crime (and 24% reconvicted).
A collection of official studies spanning the years 1983 to 2010 across all 50 states and the federal government has been assembled http://sexoffenderrecidivism.com/. This URL provides a spreadsheet and .zip file containing sources supporting the DOJ study, where the average recidivism of sex offenders committing new sex crimes since 1983 is approximately 9%, compared to the 42% average recidivism rate for all felony offenders committing any new felony offense.
According to the Office of Justice Programs
Office of Justice Programs
The Office of Justice Programs is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that focuses on crime prevention through research and development, assistance to state and local law enforcement and criminal justice agencies through grants, and assistance to crime victims.The major bureaus...
of the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, in New York State the recidivism rates for sex offenders have been shown to be lower than any other crime except murder. Another report from the OJP that studied recidivism of prisoners released in 1994 in 15 states accounting for two-thirds of all prisoners released in the United States that year, reached the same conclusion.
In 2007, the State Bureau of Investigation in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
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.
Sex offenders
- 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% of sex offenders versus 68% 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% of sex offenders versus 1.3% of non-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.
- 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.
Post-incarceration registries and restrictions
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 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.Megan's Law
Megan's Law
Megan's Law is an informal name for laws in the United States requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Individual states decide what information will be made available and how it should be disseminated...
is 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).
Living as a convicted sex offender includes living by residence stipulations in accordance with known areas of child congregation. Guided by the Adam Walsh Child Safety and Protection Act of 2007, sex offenders must steer clear of such “off-limit areas” as schools, bus stops, gyms, recreation centers, playgrounds, parks, swimming pools, libraries, nursing homes, and places of worship by five hundred to twenty five hundred feet. Yet, the residence stipulations vary individually from state to state on the intensity and specifics at hand. Some states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Washington, and Idaho, do not require sex offenders to move from their residence if a forbidden facility is built or law is enacted after the offender’s permanent placement at that particular residence. Such states as Minnesota and Oklahoma do not provide exclusions allowing alterations to residence restriction laws, but Oregon, on the other hand, does not take distance into contemplation, but instead, the primary occupancy of children on a permanent basis within the home in consideration of the offender’s allowance per their parole or probation officer’s decision on the matter (Laney).
Committing to a residence requires a convicted sex offender to be notified of local registration aspects by local law enforcement when convicted of the offense after January 1, 2005. The notification must be acted upon by the offender within five business days of receipt. If and when an offender is released from imprisonment they must confirm their registration status within five business days. Registration includes the offender’s sex, height, weight, date of birth, any identifying characteristics, specific statutes of their conviction, and even the accompaniment of a current photograph and set of fingerprints. Furthermore, an offender’s email addresses, chat room IDs, or instant messaging aliases must be surrendered to authorities. In Colorado, an offender is subject to reregistering on the basis of moving to a new location; changing their legal name, employment, volunteer, identifying information used online or enrollment status at a place of post-secondary education. Keeping up with modern times through the access of public information through the use of technology, a web-based registration list can be found on county websites, in any state, that name adult convicted sex offenders that are sexually violent predators convicted of unlawful sexual acts as a felony, crimes of violence, or by failure to register as required. Legally, “any person who is a sexually violent predator and any person who is convicted as an adult...has a duty to register for the remainder of his or her natural life” (Committee of Legal Services of the Colorado General Assembly). Exceptions to this include deferred sentencing for the offense or petition of the court for termination of registration to then possibly result in the offender reregistering themselves each and every ninety days up to and after their birthday for ‘commission of the offense’ (Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, Colorado Sex Offender Management Board).
Therapies
Behavior modificationBehavior modification
Behavior modification is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of...
programs have been shown to reduce recidivism in sex offenders. Often such programs use principles of applied behavior analysis
Applied Behavior Analysis
Applied behavior analysis is a science that involves using modern behavioral learning theory to modify behaviors. Behavior analysts reject the use of hypothetical constructs and focus on the observable relationship of behavior to the environment...
. Two such approaches from this line of research have promise. The first uses operant conditioning
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is a form of psychological learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the association of the behavior with a stimulus...
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
Aversion therapy
Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort...
. Many of the behaviorism
Behaviorism
Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...
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 therapy
Aversion therapy
Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort...
procedures remains a controversy and is often discussed as an ethical issue related to the professional practice of behavior analysis
Professional practice of behavior analysis
The professional practice of behavior analysis is one domain of behavior analysis: others being behaviorism, experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis...
.
In 2007, the Texas State Auditor released a report showing that sex offenders who completed the Texas Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) were 61% less likely to commit a new crime.
Chemical castration
Chemical castration
Chemical castration is the administration of medication designed to reduce libido and sexual activity, usually in the hope of preventing rapists, child molesters and other sex offenders from repeating their crimes...
is used in some countries and states to treat sex offenders, it is reversible once medication is stopped unlike physical castration.
For sex offenders with severe or extreme paraphilias physical castration appears to be 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 affect 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 offender's risk to reoffend:- LSI-R
- Static-99
Articles
- Child sexual abuseChild sexual abuseChild sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
- Day care sex abuse hysteria
- EphebophiliaEphebophiliaEphebophilia is the sexual preference of adults for mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century, and has been more recently revisited by Ray Blanchard. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed...
- ExhibitionismExhibitionismExhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers...
- FrotteurismFrotteurismFrotteurism refers to a paraphilic interest in rubbing, usually one's pelvis or erect penis, against a non-consenting person for sexual gratification. It may involve touching any part of the body including the genital area. A person who practices frotteurism is known as a frotteur...
- HebephiliaHebephiliaHebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty . Girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11; boys at age 11 or 12...
- IncestIncestIncest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
- ParaphiliaParaphiliaParaphilia is a biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her...
- PedophiliaPedophiliaAs a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
- Sex and the lawSex and the lawIn general, laws proscribe acts which are considered either sexual abuse, or behavior that societies consider to be inappropriate and against the social norms. In addition, certain categories of activity may be considered crimes even if freely consented to...
- Sex offender registrationSex offender registrationSex offender registration is a system in various states designed to allow government authorities to keep track of the residence and activities of sex offenders, including those who have completed their criminal sentences. In some jurisdictions , information in the registry is made available to the...
- Sexual predatorSexual predatorThe term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners...
- United States National Sex Offenders Public RegistryUnited States National Sex Offenders Public RegistryThe Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry is a cooperative effort between U.S. state agencies that host public sex offender registries and the U.S. federal government...
- VoyeurismVoyeurismIn clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
Laws
- Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety ActAdam Walsh Child Protection and Safety ActThe Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is a federal statute that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. The Walsh Act organizes sex offenders into three tiers and mandates that Tier 3 offenders update their whereabouts every three months with lifetime...
- Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration ActJacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration ActThe Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act is a United States law that requires states to implement a sex offender and crimes against children registry...
- Jessica Lunsford Act
- Jessica's LawJessica's LawJessica's Law is the informal name given to a 2005 Florida law, as well as laws in several other states, designed to punish sex offenders and reduce their ability to re-offend...
- Megan's LawMegan's LawMegan's Law is an informal name for laws in the United States requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Individual states decide what information will be made available and how it should be disseminated...
Monitoring, assessment, other
- Ankle monitorAnkle monitorAn ankle monitor is a device that individuals under house arrest are often required to wear. At timed intervals, the ankle monitor sends a radio frequency signal containing location and other information to a receiver. If an offender moves outside of an allowed range, the police will be notified...
- Circles of Support and AccountabilityCircles of Support and AccountabilityCircles of Support and Accountability are groups of volunteers with professional supervision to support sex offenders as they reintegrate into society after their release from incarceration...
- Civil confinementCivil confinementCivil confinement is a controversial procedure permitted by a law passed in New York, advocated by the former governor, Eliot Spitzer, allowing the civil commitment of sex offenders because they are deemed by a court to be a danger to themselves or to society. One political commentator on the topic...
- Global Positioning SystemGlobal Positioning SystemThe Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
(GPS) - Penile plethysmographPenile plethysmographPenile plethysmography , or "phallometry", refers to measurement of bloodflow to the male genital. The most commonly reported methods of conducting penile plethysmography involve the measurement of the circumference of the penis with a mercury-in-rubber strain gauge, or the volume of the penis with...
- RecidivismRecidivismRecidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
Offenders
- Jeffrey DahmerJeffrey DahmerJeffrey Lionel Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, with the majority of the murders occurring between 1987 and 1991. His murders involved rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism...
— American serial killer with 17 known victims. Many of his killings included sexual assaults. - Richard Allen DavisRichard Allen DavisRichard Allen Davis is a convicted murderer, whose criminal record fueled support for passage of California's "Three strikes law" for repeat offenders...
— Convicted of kidnapping, committing a lewd act on, and murdering Polly Klaas (see "Victims" section). - Josef FritzlFritzl caseThe Fritzl case emerged in April 2008 when a 42-year-old woman, Elisabeth Fritzl , stated to police in the town of Amstetten, Austria, that she had been held captive for 24 years in a concealed corridor part of the basement area of the family home, a condominium-style apartment complex built by her...
— An Austrian man who began sexually abusing his daughter Elisabeth in 1977 and kept her imprisoned in his home from 1984 until 2008. He repeatedly sexually abused and raped Elisabeth, resulting in the births of seven children and one miscarriage. One of the children died in infancy, and three were imprisoned along with Elisabeth until 2008. - Jesse Timmendequas — A registered sex offender who lured Megan Kanka (see "Victims" section) to his house and then raped and murdered her.
- Peter TobinPeter TobinPeter Britton Tobin is a convicted Scottish serial killer and sex offender now serving a sentence of life imprisonment for the murders of three young women....
— British criminal with a long record, including convictions for two rapes, who was convicted of the rape and murder of a female Polish student in 2007. After this conviction, he was found guilty of the murders of two teenage girls who disappeared in 1991, and has reportedly claimed to have killed more than 40 other people. - Ottis TooleOttis TooleOttis Elwood Toole was an American serial killer, arsonist and cannibal. Toole was an accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas...
— Serial killer who confessed to multiple murders and rapes; believed to be the killer of Adam Walsh (see "Victims" section). - Don VitoVincent MargeraVincent Roy Margera , more commonly known as Don Vito, is an American former reality television personality known for his appearances in Viva La Bam, Jackass, Haggard and the CKY videos alongside his nephew Bam...
— American reality television personality convicted of groping two 12-year-old girls in 2007.
Victims
- Megan KankaMegan KankaThe murder of Megan Kanka occurred on July 29, 1994 in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. The 7 year old Kanka was raped and murdered by her neighbour Jesse Timmendequas...
— Megan’s Law is a law based on the avoidable rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka. This California state law to make known the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders as public knowledge was passed in 1996. Unaware of the child molester moving in across the street from their home, the Kanka family was destroyed. Through the heartache of the tragedy, Megan’s family fought to make their story known in the hopes of providing awareness and precautionary opportunity to each and every family living among convicted sex offenders and working towards preventing their family’s circumstances from being repeated. Though offenders may view this public awareness through varying opinions, the Law is not a discriminatory practice, but instead, a public service and right to personal safety measures. Because of their efforts, each state can thank the Kankas for some form of Megan’s Law (State of California Department of Justice). - Polly Klaas — Kidnapped at age 12 from her California home in 1993. Richard Allen Davis, who had a criminal record dating to the late 1960s that included some sex crimes, was convicted of her murder.
- Jessica LunsfordJessica LunsfordJessica Marie Lunsford was a nine-year-old girl who was abducted from her home in Homosassa, Florida in the early morning of February 24, 2005. Believed held captive over the weekend, she was raped and later murdered by 47-year-old John Couey who lived nearby. The media covered the investigation...
— Kidnapped at age 9 from her Florida home in 2005 and murdered by John Couey, a previously convicted sex offender. The Jessica's LawJessica's LawJessica's Law is the informal name given to a 2005 Florida law, as well as laws in several other states, designed to punish sex offenders and reduce their ability to re-offend...
s passed in many U.S. states were inspired by her case. - Dru Sjodin — University of North Dakota student kidnapped in 2003 and found dead five months later. A registered sex offender was convicted of her murder.
- Adam Walsh — On July 27, 1981, Adam Walsh’s abduction not only turned the lives of his parents upside down, but also every other home with small children across the country. At this point in time, it was deemed safe and acceptable to leave children in the car or toy section of a store unattended. Adam Walsh, only six-years-old, stayed playing video games with three other boys in the toy section of Sears while his mother shopped for lamps only a few feet away. When the four boys acted up, they were told to leave because the other boys informed security that their parents were not in the store. Returning to the video games, Adam’s mother searched frantically for her son who was nowhere to be found. Hours passed by before the police were called and Adam’s mother taken seriously by Authorities. Between the news casts, fliers, and alerts that were disbursed in Hollywood, Florida, and ultimately nationwide, Adam’s family and the parents of America grew weary of his chances of being alive. Two weeks later, a fisherman reported a severed head in an irrigation canal nearly one hundred miles away from the Sears department store that Authorities deciphered to be Adam Walsh by dental record and the verification of a family friend. Two years later, detained convicted felon and offender Otis Toole confessed to the kidnapping and murder of a young boy he picked up in a Hollywood, Florida Sears parking lot. Initially, Toole’s story was flawed with blame on a partner, followed by a confession of his solo action in the crime, and a description of events identical to Mrs. Walsh’s testimony. Yet, even after walking the police through each step and scenario that had taken place that summer day of 1981, Toole retracted his confession of ever committing the heinous crime. With this, Adam’s parents made it their mission to be activists for missing children, and never surrendered their son’s right to justice and their own peace of mind to finally receive closure to the case. Passing away in prison where he had resided for hundreds of other accounted for murders he had committed, Toole was finally to blame and announced as such by Authorities twenty-seven years later (Fox.com). This tragedy depicts the importance of public awareness of those specifically intending on harming children, however that may be. This repeat offender provided numerous instances and examples of which he should have been permanently incarcerated for, but he was not even under supervision or probation of any kind to manage his activities in the outside world, interaction with children, or chances of murdering again.
- Jacob WetterlingJacob WetterlingJacob Erwin Wetterling is a boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota who was kidnapped from his hometown at the age of 11 on Sunday, October 22, 1989...
— Kidnapped at age 11 from his Minnesota hometown in 1989 and has not been seen since.
Activists
- John WalshJohn WalshJohn Edward Walsh is an American television personality, criminal investigator, human and victim rights advocate and formerly the host, as well as creator, of America's Most Wanted...
— Father of Adam Walsh and host of America's Most WantedAmerica's Most WantedAmerica's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
. - Patty WetterlingPatty WetterlingPatty Wetterling is a U.S. advocate of children's safety, particularly focused on protecting children from abduction and abuse. Her advocacy began after her son Jacob was abducted in 1989...
— Mother of Jacob Wetterling. Notable for opposing very broad registration laws that classify minor offenders on the same scale as high-risk predators.
Shows & organizations
- America's Most WantedAmerica's Most WantedAmerica's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
- Megan Nicole Kanka FoundationMegan Nicole Kanka FoundationThe Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation is a non-profit charity founded by the family of Megan Kanka with the intent of preventing crimes against children....
- National Center for Missing and Exploited ChildrenNational Center for Missing and Exploited ChildrenThe National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress.-Establishment and overview:...
- Polly Klaas FoundationPolly Klaas FoundationThe Polly Klaas Foundation is a 501 public charity organization devoted to preventing crimes against children, assisting in the recovery of missing children, and lobbying for legislative assistance. The foundation was formed October 23, 1993 to search for Polly Klaas. Its executive director is...
- To Catch a PredatorTo Catch a PredatorTo Catch a Predator is an American reality television series that features hidden camera investigations by the television newsmagazine program Dateline NBC. It is devoted to impersonating underage youth and detaining adults who contact them over the Internet for sexual liaisons...
External links
- Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers
- Bureau of Justice Statistics
- Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from Prison in 1994
- CSOM Publications - Myths and Facts About Sex Offenders
- Facts about Sex Offenders (ATSA)
- Human Rights Watch Report - No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US
- Internet Safety Technical Task Force Report - Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies
- FBI - Registries for each state
- National Sex Offender Registry
- Recidivism: How often do Child Molesters go on to Reoffend?
- Female Sex Offenders