English: The nature and scope of sexual based offenses: [12,540]

As a starting point, let me say a few things about sexual victimization.

Generally,  I am going to provide a general overview of sexual victimization—its incidence and prevalence, known reporting rates, and a few basic trends pertaining to these kinds of offenses. And then I will highlight some general information about the sex offenders who come to the attention of the authorities.

Having a broad sense for this information is a crucial first step in understanding this serious problem and considering how best to respond to it. Now, the National Violence Against Women Survey was a national survey on men’s and women’s experiences with violence. The benefit of this survey is that it collected self-report data rather than official data; therefore, it captures information on both reported and unreported sexual assaults. Please keep in mind, though,  that the definitions of sexual victimization, as well as the terms used to describe it, vary according to the data source. For example, the National Violence Against Women Survey measures “forcible rape” and defines it as forced vaginal, oral, or anal sex.

The Unites States Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program of the FBI, however, more specifically defines “forcible rape” as the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will; sex offenses that do not fit under this definition of “forcible rape” are labeled as “other sex offenses” and include sodomy, statutory rape, incest, fondling, sexual assault with an object, and similar acts. Yet other data sources may use more general terms such as “sexual assault” or “sexual victimization” to describe a variety of sexual offenses, including nonconsensual vaginal, oral, or anal sex, and may occasionally use these terms interchangeably.

The National Incidence Based Reporting System is an incidence-based reporting system that captures data about reported crime. The data is a part of the larger Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program of the FBI, and was developed to enhance the existing UCR data by providing more extensive or detailed information on the nature and types of specific offenses in an incident, characteristics of the victim(s) and offender(s), and characteristics of persons arrested in connection with a crime. The benefit of this data is that it includes information on victims and offenders of all ages. However, a significant limitation of this data is that it only addresses reported incidents of crime. Researchers have documented a decline in child sexual abuse cases in recent years

The incidence and prevalence of sexual victimization:
Sexual assault is a widespread occurrence. According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, approximately 302,100 women and 92,700 men are forcibly raped in the US each year. It is estimated that one in six women and one in 33 men in the United States have experienced an attempted or completed rape sometime in their lives.  Similarly, approximately one in four girls and one in seven boys are sexually assaulted before the age of 18.

Age of victims
Many sexual assaults are committed against our nation’s youth. In the National Violence Against Women Survey, over half of the respondents who experienced an attempted or completed rape reported that the assault occurred when they were under 18 years of age. Yet another national survey found the same trend, with 61% of reported rapes occurring before the victim reached age 18. These numbers are also replicated in official crime reporting data, which reflects the reporting rates of sexual assaults to law enforcement agencies across the country. For example, according to the National Incidence Based Reporting System, roughly 2/3 or 67% of all victims of reported sexual assaults were under 18 years of age. And more than half of these victims were under the age of 12.

The gender of victims:
As you may have noticed from some of the statistics mentioned, women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault. As they are more than six times as likely as males to be victimized sexually. The chances of a male being targeted decrease as he enters into adolescence and beyond, the chances of a female being sexually victimized actually increase as they move from childhood to adolescence, peaking at around the 14 years old.

Victim–offender relationship:
Another particularly important finding is that most victims of sexual abuse know the person who abuses them. There is only a relatively small percentage of perpetrators are strangers to their victims. In both rape and child sexual abuse cases, most of the offenders are either family members or acquaintances.

Even for those of us who work in this field, some of these trends can be surprising, and they  actually have fairly good access to the information. Unfortunately, those in this community may not receive this kind of data, and sometimes, they may hear inaccurate or misleading information, which may lead them to believe in commonly held myths or misperceptions about sex crimes, victims, and the individuals who commit these offenses.

For example, the information about the relationship between victims and offenders is probably not commonly known by many people in the general public. All too often, they may subscribe to the myth that victims of sex crimes are generally targeted by strangers. And, that is in part the result of a lack of comprehensive and ongoing community education efforts around this critical issue. Instead, people tend to hear about a few very tragic and “high profile cases” in which strangers commit heinous crimes, often against children; and in the absence of the full “picture” of sexual victimization, they understandably make assumptions or draw conclusions about these crimes. But those kinds of cases are not reflective of the actual victimization trends.

Under–reporting of sexual victimization:
A significant problem with statistics and other information about these crimes is that they are limited by what is known to the authorities. As they are based only on the cases that are reported. Unfortunately, sexual assault is perhaps the most underreported crime.  Researchers have found that the majority of victims of sexual assaults (right around 84%) do not report their victimization to law enforcement.

There are many reasons that sexual victimization goes unreported. Some victims do not report it to police because they believe nothing can be done or because they worry that there may not be enough proof. They might also choose not to report these crimes out of fear of retaliation by the offender, or because they or their loved ones were threatened. And in some cases, particularly intrafamilial child sexual abuse or domestic partner rapes, the victims may have strong attachments to the abusers, may want to protect them, may be emotionally or financially dependent on them, may not want the family to be disrupted, or may not want them to be punished.

Sexual victimization is a very personal matter, and many who have been victimized simply do not want to discuss it with others, especially someone that they do not know. Similarly, some victims may be concerned about others finding out about what happened to them. Not only might a person who has been victimized already feel as though they are somehow responsible, but they may also worry that others will blame them for what happened. Or they may worry that law enforcement officials, or even their own friends, family, or loved ones, will not believe what happened to them was really an assault; and the victims may wonder about this very issue themselves.

Male victims of sexual assault may face additional concerns about reporting their victimization to police and are, as a result, less likely to report their sexual victimization. Whereas the average rate of reporting sexual assault for females is approximately 17%,  some experts estimate the average rate of reporting sexual assault for males is as low as 5%.  Male victims who are targeted by male perpetrators may fear that if they disclose their sexual victimization to police and others, others might question their sexual orientation or identity, their masculinity, or their strength for not stopping the attack. And if the offender was female, male victims may worry that others will question how they could possibly be victimized by a female, which may be in part related to biases within our society about the potential for women to commit sex offenses. Regardless of the gender of the offender, male victims, similar to female victims, may often question their own response to the attack, as well. At any rate, it is clear that victims do not always view reporting their sexual victimization as a safe or worthwhile option, and therefore they may never disclose their abuse.

So we must always keep in mind that we only know what we know, the data about victims and victimization that we are working with only reflects what has been reported. And that applies to what we know about those who commit these crimes as well.

Sex offenders who come to the attention of the authorities:
Because sexual abuse is such a hidden crime, the individuals who commit sex offenses often remain hidden to us, too

Arrests of sex offenders
In 2013, there were 26,066 arrests for forcible rape and 90,913 arrests for other sex offenses in the US.  Adults account for about 80% of these arrests, although a considerable percentage are juveniles.  And as you can see, males account for approximately 95% of arrests for sex crimes.

The data indicates that arrests for sex offenses account for less than 1% of all arrests.  Although arrests for sex offenses represent a very small proportion of arrests for all crimes, the absolute numbers of both offenders and victims, and the considerable impact that sex offenses have on victims, families, and communities, are still profound. And of course, I am only talking about the number of people who were actually arrested for these crimes. Again, we only know what is reported. And even if an incident is reported, not all of those reports actually lead to an arrest.

Convicted sex offenders:
Just as not all reported incidents lead to an arrest, not all arrests actually result in a criminal conviction. So when we consider the sex offenders who are currently in the criminal justice system, either those who are incarcerated or those under criminal justice supervision in the community, and I know that we are only seeing a small fraction of the individuals who have committed these offenses. As they represent only the tip of the iceberg.

Nonetheless, the population of sex offenders entering our nation’s prisons has grown substantially in recent years. Remember that sex offenses represent only 1% of arrests for all crimes. Yet it is estimated that between 28% and 55% of our prison populations are comprised of sex offenders. Arriving at a precise number can be difficult because of the different ways in which studies identify offenders and define sex offenses, but based on recent prison census data, (2014) it can be conservatively estimated that over 650,000 sex offenders are incarcerated in state and federal correctional facilities throughout the country.  From 2000 to 2014, the number of incarcerated sex offenders increased by more than 450%.

Sometimes, when members of the general public and even some professionals hear about the high percentages and large numbers of incarcerated sex offenders, they are relieved because these offenders are “off the streets,” so to speak. However, in reality, almost all offenders, (97%)  will eventually return to thge community.  This equates to as many as 34,000 sex offenders being released into local communities each and every year.

Using recent data about offenders under probation or parole supervision in the US, and taking into account previous figures for sex offenders under community supervision specifically, it is estimated that roughly 570,000 sex offenders may be under community supervision at the present time.  The number of sex offenders who are actively under the supervision of criminal justice authorities is believed to represent only about 14% of all sex offenders living in the community, however. That’s because many known sex offenders have already completed their probation or parole requirements, and again, many individuals who have committed sex offenses have not been detected or apprehended in the first place.

Officially undetected offenses
Specifically, researchers have been able to learn from the offenders themselves about other sexually deviant behaviors [and even additional sex crimes] that have gone undetected.  If reliable, this information suggests that the “picture” of the offender that we get when we look at official records may not reflect the full picture, and challenges the myth that the sex offense for which an individual is convicted is the only offense that he has committed.

For example, several hundred sex offenders were granted federal assurances of confidentiality so that they could disclose to the researchers their full sex offense histories without the possibility of that information being reported to law enforcement.   On average, these offenders admitted to having many more victims and offenses than were known to the authorities. Another study by other Researchers yielded strikingly similar results, with significantly greater numbers of undetected deviant sexual acts than what were indicated in the official records for these offenders.

Something else that was very noteworthy in this particular study was that some rapists of adult women reported that they had also committed sex offenses against children, and some child sexual abusers reported that they had also perpetrated rapes against adult women. This is referred to as “crossover.”  In other words, some individuals have demonstrated problems with sexual deviance across categories of offending behaviors, such as engaging in rape of an adult women and the molestation of young children.

All of these findings are consistent with some of the more recent work of practitioners who use the polygraph in the sex offender management process—particularly as a means of facilitating disclosures of offenders’ sexual histories.  As a result, we have gained additional insights into the possibilities for undetected sex offenses, and we are more aware that the sex crimes for which individuals are arrested and ultimately convicted may not be their first or only sex offenses. In fact, published studies involving the polygraph have revealed that the data found in official records may reflect a significant under–indication of the extent and range of individuals’ sex offending behaviors.

Taken together, these studies demonstrate how—compared to official records—we may glean a much fuller picture of sex offenders based on their own self disclosure.

What this suggests is that society needs to more fully understand the sex offenders with whom they are living next to, and in the community area where they reside, and that there is a need to get as complete a “picture” of them as possible in order to be most effective in prevent them to reoffend. There may be more than simply meets the eye, so to speak. Comprehensive assessment information about each individual offender will help assist the community in the determination on how to respond and intervene most appropriately and responsibly, to others that may follow them in the future.

Recidivism rates
Before I wrap up this article, let me say this:

Contrary to public perception and common myths that exist about sex offenders, recidivism rates for sex offenders are relatively low. For example, looking at thousands and thousands of sex offenders—some treated, some not, some who were incarcerated, some who were not—reveals an average recidivism rate of less than 15% over a 5–6 year follow–up period. Not surprisingly, when following them for longer periods of time, the rates go up to some extent. For example, in one study that followed approximately 4,700 sex offenders, the recidivism rate of the group as a whole was 14% at the 5 year follow–up, 20% at the 10 year follow–up, and 24% after 15 years of follow–up.

But, you need to understand and know, that recidivism rates for sex offenders can vary significantly depending upon a number of variables, including the types of victims they target and whether they have been convicted of prior sex offenses and the types of victims they target.  As a group, the individuals with prior convictions for sex crimes had higher rates of sexual recidivism than those without a prior sex crime conviction.  And as you can see, in that same study, those who committed sex offenses within the family (incest offenders) had the lowest rates of recidivism over time, and those who molested male children outside of the family had the highest rates.

Also noteworthy is that the overall recidivism rate for sex offenders is lower than that of other criminal populations—both for violent and non–violent offenders.  Sex offenders—when they are arrested or convicted again—tend to have committed non–sex crimes rather than new sex offenses.  And even though these observed rates of recidivism are relatively low, it must be remembered the impact that additional sex offenses have on victims, families, and communities can be very significant.

Thus, it is critical that we do what we can to prevent further victimization. Learning more about victims and offenders, gaining additional information about crime trends, understanding offense characteristics, and researching issues related to recidivism—as these studies have done—can help us to do just that.

Summary
I’ve covered a lot of data and statistics in this article in order to offer you a sense for the nature and extent of this challenging issue. Taken together, these statistics and some of the research I have published here suggest that our knowledge of the scope of sex offending and victimization is, by no means, complete. Nonetheless, everyone will have to work within the parameters of what is known, in order to develop interventions, strategies, and policies that are informed by the best information available—even though it may be limited—rather than attempting to address the problem of sex offending based on myths or misinformation.

As always, stay safe !!

Bird

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