Sex offender
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A sex offender is a person who has been criminally charged and convicted of, or has pled guilty to, a sex crime. As a label of identity it is used in criminal psychology. Especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, the person, if convicted, is most likely required to register with the respective jurisdiction's sex offender registry.
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[edit] Iowa
The State of Iowa has passed some of the most stringent sex offender legislation in the United States. Under Iowa Code 692A, sex offenders are banned from living within 2,000 feet of schools and day care centers [1], which essentially bans sex offenders from living in most cities and towns. In Does I, II & III v. Miller, a federal judge from the southern district of Iowa held that the 2,000 foot rule was unconstitutional and violated an offender's right to substantive due process of the law and overturned the law citing its retroactive sanctions on sex offenders and their families (violating the ex post facto clause of the Constitution). A year later, that ruling was reversed by the Iowa Court of Appeals, following the violent Jetsetta Gage child murder case. The Court of Appeals said the statute was legal in the name of public safety. After the residency restrictions went into effect, the number of sex offender registrants with unconfirmed whereabouts increased 400%. Other sex offenders adjudicated for not registering or for living within restricted areas usually remain in the Iowa penal system for the entirety of their ten years on the registry.
Iowa law also requires children and teens who have been adjudicated delinquent juveniles for sex crimes to register as sex offenders.
[edit] Recidivism rates
While often considered highly dangerous by the public once released from prison, sex offenders have a relatively low recidivism rate. Most sex offenders have between a 3 and 13% chance of reoffense. More specifically, the rate for new sex crimes is 13.7%, the rate for child molestation is 12.7%, the rate for child molestation within families is 8.4%, and the rate for rape 18.9%. [2]
Canadian studies have shown approximately a 13.4% rate of recidivism. [3]
[edit] References
- ^ "Iowa Sex Offender Law Does Not Distinguish Sex Abuse from Consenting Sex Between Two Teens. It Imposes Lifetime Sentence For Both" omaha-neb.com, January 16, 2006. Retrieved May 28, 2006.
- ^ "Sex Offenses: Facts, Fictions and Policy Implications", National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, January 2006. Retrieved 20 May 2006. PDF
- ^ Hanson, R.K. (1997). "Predictors of sex offence recidivism." Research Summary. Ottawa: Solicitor General Canada.
