Sex offender registry

Why sex crimes are not like any other crime

Reading through my copy of NUVO a few weeks back, I was rather disturbed to see the article that ran the sex offender registry into the ground (First Person, “Mapping Sex Offenders,” April 26-May 3). Even more distressing was the letter to the editor the following week (Mail, “Reformation, not Vindictive Justice,” May 3 - 10), which praised this point of view, with no comments to the contrary.

There are several reasons why sex crimes are not like any other crime — there are several reasons why one should be more concerned with a sex offender living next door than many other ex-cons.

Let’s begin with the false notion that sex offenders are the only “searchable” criminals in the state of Indiana. This is patently wrong. If someone is concerned with their new neighbor, all they have to do is obtain their neighbor’s name, and visit www.in.gov/indcorrection/, and punch in the name. There, they can see if a corresponding name pops up, when the criminal was convicted and of what crime. Race and age is also included, so it’s fairly easy to narrow down the culprit.

Now that the notion of only sex offenders being punished via registry has been dispelled, I will move on. All of the facts and figures used come from RAINN.org, and studies commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice.

There is a prevalence of sex crimes that nearly no one in this country wishes to recognize. It became clear to me that the authors of the previous articles had not been affected by a sex crime. More accurately, they do not KNOW that they have been affected by a sex crime. However, when one in six women in this country (and this is an under-reported amount; other estimates put the numbers closer to one in three) are sexually assaulted at some point in their lives — either as children or adults — there is no way that EVERYONE is not affected by sex crimes. Around 10 percent of all (reported) sex crimes victims are male, a much higher percent than is generally acknowledged.

Aside from the emotional aspect of these crimes, here are some basic facts:

1) The recidivism rate for child molesters is roughly 50 percent according to studies. This is, again, certainly an underestimate, as crimes such as these are under-reported.

2) The recidivism rate for reported rapists is nearly 40 percent.

3) Using polygraphs, researchers discovered that among sex offenders who had been convicted of “two sex crimes or less,” the offender already had committed a sexual offence 117 times before being reported. Think of all the unreported victims, and try to say with a straight face that sex crimes are not under-reported.

4) Sex offenders begin committing sex crimes, on average, 15 years before getting caught the first time.

5) Sex offenders are MORE LIKELY to commit other non-sexual crimes, but criminals of other varieties are NOT more likely to commit sex crimes.
To the issue of say, the 18-year-old who sleeps with his 17-year-old girlfriend and landing on the registry for life: Yes, that is a problem, and one that should be dealt with. Perhaps such crimes should be dealt with differently.