Quote:
Originally Posted by SureFire
A 'real' sex offender should be lock up for life or shot. Studies, research and whatever, show that legal system cannot reform them, and just lets them go back to be caught again just because they served their time.
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That is simply not true. In fact, it's complete nonsense.
What studies show is that sexual offenders, and child molesters in particular, actually are way less likely than other criminals to repeat their crimes.
Here are some numbers from an Economist article:
http://www.economist.com/world/brita..._id=E1_VQTRPDT
Quote:
Men convicted of sex offences involving children are not, in fact, all that likely to commit further crimes. Of those released in 2002, 17% were in trouble again within two years. That may sound appalling, but compared with other ex-cons, sex offenders were paragons of virtue. The re-conviction rate for all criminals was 60% (see chart). Most incorrigible were men who stole from vehicles, 85% of whom had been re-convicted within the same period.
It is also likely that most of the child sex offenders who got into trouble after their release were collared for a different (and less appalling) crime. A study by America's Department of Justice found that, while 39% of child molesters were arrested again within three years of release, just 3% were suspected of another sex crime against a child.
Some convicted child molesters will have returned to their old ways and not been caught, of course. Others will have lapsed later, so their crimes will not show up in the statistics. But the same is true of other criminals. And the police presumably keep closer tabs on sex offenders than on, say, burglars?otherwise, what is the point of all those lists?
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The question whether even that small a risk should be taken is another matter. Still, to make an informed judgment, one needs to have the facts. (another fact: most sex offenders victimize people in their own circle of friends and family)