Citation

Caldwell MF. Sex. Abuse 2007; 19(2): 107-113.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W, Johnson St., Madison, WI 53706, USA. mfcaldwell@wisc.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1007/s11194-007-9042-7

PMID

17530405

Abstract

This study compares the recidivism patterns of a cohort of 249 juvenile sexual offenders and 1,780 non-sexual offending delinquents who were released from secured custody over a two and one half year period. The prevalence of sex offenders with new sexual offense charges during the 5 year follow-up period was 6.8%, compared to 5.7% for the non-sexual offenders, a non-significant difference. Juvenile sex offenders were nearly ten times more likely to have been charged with a nonsexual offense than a sexual offense. Eighty-five percent of the new sexual offenses in the follow-up period were accounted for by the non-sex offending delinquents. None of the 54 homicides (including three sexual homicides) was committed by a juvenile sex offender. The implications of the results for recent public policy trends that impose restrictions that are triggered by a sexual offense adjudication are discussed.

Language: en