Sex Offenders
Committing sex crimes is one of the most wide-spread types of offense, and it is one of the scariest ones, as often it is targeted at children. In different countries there are various jurisdictions applicable for sex offenders and various definitions of sex crimes. They can be minor, such as receiving or sending obscene content in SMS messages, and can be such that involve a victim or several victims. And the latter kind of cases is the one, towards which the government prevention efforts are directed.
Despite the efforts and different programs, recidivism rate among sexual offenders reaches 5.3%. It is not a positive tendency, as it means that every 19th offender released from prison commits new sex crime within 3 years after release. While according to statistics, sex offenders are less likely to get arrested for any crime (43% against 68%), they are more likely to commit the same kind of crime – 5.3% versus 1.3%. An average age of sex offenders’ victims is less than 13, and for rape victims – around 22.
The above presented statistics may seem really scary, and rightly so. In order to change the situation, some urgent measures have to be taken and effective programs to decrease recidivism cases should be implemented. Today one of the effective ways of keeping sex offenders under some kind of control is regular updating of sex offender registry. In the US such databases are open to the public through special websites or other sources. The offenders are classified into levels and people can freely see whether there are such people in the surrounding territory. There are also restrictions as to the place of residence for the offenders – they usually cannot reside near schools, gyms and other places of children’s conglomeration. Still, as statistics shows, it is necessary to work on new ways of sex offenders’ control so as to be sure in the safety of our kids.