Sex Offender Statistics

[jmni]

If it does not bother you, please contribute. I've read statistics (no source) that say to the effect of 60% of all sex offenders were assaulted or molested as children. I don't buy it. I think sex offenders think they're manipulative and that they can trick people into thinking they're the victim, instead of the nasty sex offender. To me that seems like it could be total bullshit. Why wouldn't a sex offender lie? And they're nasty. They like saying and doing gross things. These are people that lie to themselves every minute of their life. Some portion just imagine it, another portion thinks it makes them sound likeable, some of them are trying to play a crazy game. They're weird and I just don't trust that. My experience a has been, idiot sex offenders have heard it, and they think that makes them seem forgiving.

I do not mean to say that it's completely wrong. Maybe there's some margin of error accounting for liars in these kinds of studies. Does anyone else feel doubt about that?

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I did a quick Google search and the three sites I saw this statistic, it was around 30%, not 60%.

 

[Mit]

I've done some research into this in the past. From what I have read actual figures are hard to come by, research reports suggest a range of 5% - 30% of victims of CSA go on to offend. It is well understood that the vast majority of victims do not go on to offend themselves. Previous suggestions of a strong link between victims becoming offenders have been disproven over recent years.

 

[Fadeaway]

However, the association that sex offenders were former victims exists in society. This is a common assumption. An assumption makes me angry every time I hear it because I feel like it just adds more shame to being a victim. That people might find out and then start looking at you as a possible offender.

@Mit in the Uk it might be well understood, but in my neck of the woods, that is the number one excuse they give as to why someone became a predator.:mad:

 

[digger]

research reports suggest a range of 5% - 30% of victims of CSA go on to offend.

That's not the same as the percentage of offenders having been abused themselves though - they are two separate figures.

You can have a small percentage of people who were abused going on to abuse themselves, but that population making up a large percentage of all abusers.

I'm not sure how any figures can be accurately determined though because that would rely on abusers being truthful about their own history and I don't how that can be guaranteed.

 

[Mit]

but neck of the woods, that is the number one excuse they give as to why someone became a predator.

Which makes no sense, for instance, when the vast majority of reported victims of CSA are female but the majority of offenders are male. I understand the perception of a link between being abused and going on to offend, but it clearly isn't the whole picture, not by a long way. I share your anger about the impact that this has on victims and profiling, it happened to me.

I'm not sure how any figures can be accurately determined though because that would rely on abusers being truthful about their own history and I don't how that can be guaranteed.

Absolutely - I've found there are very few studies in which actual figures are quoted, for those very reasons.

 

[digger]

I've read statistics (no source) that say to the effect of 60% of all sex offenders were assaulted or molested as children. I don't buy it. I think sex offenders think they're manipulative and that they can trick people into thinking they're the victim, instead of the nasty sex offender.

I think it also might be useful to clarify who we're referring to with the term sex offender. My biased brain initially read this as talking about those who abuse children and missed the 'all sex offenders'. Because I can believe, (but not condone or excuse) that a larger percentage of people who abuse children may have been abused themselves as children, but I find it harder to make the correlation between childhood abuse and the sex offender who sexually assaults other adults. Is that just me?

 

[Deleted member 1860]

One study i found used polygraphs to determine the percentage. 2/3 CLAIMED to be victims but the polygraph tests showed it was closer to 30%.

 

[Dee Morris]

I am a criminal justice major, psychology minor. Having studied psychology of the offender this past spring, I can tell you that the number is most likely higher due to an absence of reporting. I'm on my phone and on the shuttle to my first class of the day but I'll pop back in later tonight to elaborate with sources.

 

[jmni]

@Mit in the Uk it might be well understood, but neck of the woods, that is the number one excuse they give as to why someone became a predator.:mad:

That is really what angers me. It has become an acceptable excuse and it's not.

I'm not sure how any figures can be accurately determined though because that would rely on abusers being truthful about their own history and I don't how that can be guaranteed.

Because they're liars.

Because I can believe, (but not condone or excuse) that a larger percentage of people who abuse children may have been abused themselves as children, but I find it harder to make the correlation between childhood abuse and the sex offender who sexually assaults other adults. Is that just me?

No. That does seem weird.

One study i found used polygraphs to determine the percentage. 2/3 CLAIMED to be victims but the polygraph tests showed it was closer to 30%.

Proof!

For whatever reason this has become something idiot sex offenders have worked into their lie, as if they have to tell a story when they commit sexual assault. It's as if they want to seem like they're interesting people.

Really, sexual assault is like a decision to do something really weird and it has to do with feeling dominant via defiling and disrespecting a random person that has nothing to do with them.

How can anyone really believe them anyway. They're all so nasty.

 

[ihateusernames]

Is that just me?

Nope, that was my thought process, too. I immediately assumed child abusers because my brain can make a little bit of sense of that. But sex offender is a much broader category. And no, I don't see how being molested as a child would lead to assaulting adults.

 

[jmni]

I didn't take it to mean that. I always took that to be an explanation for adult sex offenders. I suppose it makes more sense as you thought of it.