Like death and taxes, some things never change

I came across an interesting report today. It is an analysis of sexual crimes committed in New York City over a ten-year period. I want to share some of the highlights with you.

  • Although sex crimes receive more public attention than other types of crime, they represent only a small fraction of the sum total coming to the attention of the Police Department.
  • Most sex crimes are by first offenders; offenders charged with sex felonies are less inclined to have records than other types of felons.
  • When sex offenders do have prior criminal records, it is usually for nonsexual crimes.
  • Sex crime is not habitual behavior for the great majority of convicted sex offenders. Police Department fingerprint records disclose that only 7% of the offenders convicted of sex crimes in XXXX were again arrested on the same charge during the next twelve years.
  • There is no universal type of sex offender. He is drawn from all age groups and from all social and economic classes.
  • Youthful sex offenders, men between the ages of sixteen and thirty, are the most numerous. They account for 59% of the total convicted.
  • Over half of the sex offenders (59%) convicted were charged with statutory rape, which involved a normal act of sexual intercourse with a girl who was under the statutory age.
  • 13% of the offenders were convicted after trial, whereas 87% entered pleas of guilty.

By now you are probably asking, “So?” None of this is news to us.

Would you be surprised to know that these statements come from a New York City study, the Mayor’s Committee Reports on the Study of Sex Offenses, published in 1944? It is an analysis of police sexual crimes records from the years 1930-1939.

Other than being evidence that the re-offense rates we see today are not the result of the registry or anything else being done as a result of our current sex offender industry, what does this mean?

It means that it was known more than fifty years before registries swept the nation that most sexual crimes are committed by first offenders, those who are highly unlikely to have committed a previous sexual offense, and that it is not “habitual behavior” for the majority of those convicted.

It means that all of these years of public registration and wasted resources and destroyed lives need never have happened.

But then we already knew that too, didn’t we?

 

Thanks to Dave in the Philippines for finding and sending this report: it is from the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Volume 34, Issue 5, Current notes (pp 324-26), 1944.

 

 

 

Sandy Rozek

Written by 

Sandy, a NARSOL board member, is communications director for NARSOL, editor-in-chief of the Digest, and a writer for the Digest and the NARSOL website. Additionally, she participates in updating and managing the website and assisting with a variety of organizational tasks.

18 Thoughts to “Like death and taxes, some things never change”

  1. AvatarOh my!

    75 years ago?! Wow!!

  2. AvatarChanta bullock

    WOW This article need to be sent to every police station every state legislator everybody to make laws..

  3. AvatarDavid

    Looks like females didn’t commit sex crimes back then ether huh!

    “There is no universal type of sex offender. (He) is drawn from all age groups and from all social and economic classes.”
    “Youthful sex offenders, (men) between the ages of sixteen and thirty, are the most numerous. They account for 59% of the total convicted.”

    Oh the double standard that just keeps raging on!

    As for the relevance of this article WOW! Great information if this is not shouted from the roof tops we should give up!

    1. sandysandy

      My guess is that back then, no one would have reported sexual abuse by a female;it would have seemed too unbelievable. And you are welcome to link anything on our website as long as it is being used in advocacy for our cause.

    2. AvatarJeremy

      That applies to now as well. If a young male gets an erection, it is still assumed that he was not abused. Plus, societal norms dictate that a male that got “laid” by an adult female is not a victim but rather an overachiever. Also, females cannot legally commit rape since rape laws require the use of the male appendage. If two legally drunk adults, one male and one female, engage in relations, the male can be charged with rape while the female is labeled a victim. I could go on and on about why this happens, but you get the idea.

  4. AvatarDavid

    Hey sandy

    Can i past it or link it in the comments section of every RSO article everywhere. It is smoking gun hot material?

    Thanks Dave in the Philippines!!

  5. AvatarDO

    That good ol sex offender registry. I’m going to call it exactly what it is. It is a list that says it is ok to bully these people. That’s basically what the list is used for. I have been on that registry for over thirteen years for a mistake I made as an older teenager. I can tell you this from experience, not many people that need to look at it actually do. The people with young kids or women who are living in an area where they could be susceptible to being sexually assaulted aren’t really paying much attention to that list. What I have seen with my own eyes is that most of the people that use it are just people that are unhappy and looking for someone else to pick on because they don’t like their own situation. These people don’t have kids or anything of that nature. They are just grown up immature individuals with nothing going for them. People who actually use their brains know that the registry does not make them safe. The registry in every state does nothing but grow larger. The only way to keep your kids and self safe from a sex crime is to treat everyone you don’t know well as someone who is potentially capable of doing something wrong to you. You know I get tired of seeing the oppression over and over again. I was originally supposed to register for ten years and thanks to a federal law I am now required to register for life even though I was a few years shy of being taken off the registry. I try and educate the general public on the registry because they have no idea of how these people are so they see them in a one dimensional fashion. That’s terrible. That’s an easy way for American society to spread hate and fear. It bothered me so much that I wrote a short biography on my life. I even self-published it on Amazon. It is called “An ambivalent pariah”. In this book I don’t parade myself off as a hero because I know in my youth I was no saint. Even as much of a heathen as I was I wasn’t the person the sex offender registry made me out to be. Now I’m on a crusade. I wrote my book and now I am recruiting offenders to write me their stories of how they came to be on the registry and how it has affected their life. I will take that information and create one super book that I can publish and give the money back to the offenders. I am sure that I will end up put away for telling too much truth.

    1. AvatarPeter

      DO, If you want my story got to the tales from the from the registry section and look for an article by tolong and you will have my story. I started my 14th year on the registry in December 2016 and like you I only had 10 years. peter aka tolong

    2. AvatarNH Registrant

      If the stories can be told under complete and total anonymity, I’ll gladly write and send you mine for inclusion. I fear reprisal from those involved. So, I won’t do it unless I can be guaranteed it won’t come back to bite me.

    3. AvatarJeremy

      I also have my tale on tales from the registry under the heading, “The implications of an unconstitutional registry” To add to that tale, I just had a “compliance” check at my house and the officer threatened me because my driver’s license doesn’t have my new address on it. Anyone and everyone that knows my name knows where I live. Why is my license address even part of the law?

  6. AvatarNH Registrant

    Living on the registry is a nightmare.

    It is like being still in prison on the outside – only a little less confining and regimented.

    – You are under constant threat, no matter how small.
    – You are very restricted on where you can live or go.
    – You have to be suspicious of everyone you see: Do they know?
    – You will be found out to be on the registry no matter how hard you try to hide it.
    – Every unexpected visitor might be the police with a new charge in hand ready to haul you off. (Sure, that is my PTSD talking. But, it is a very real panic I go into when someone doesn’t call before they come knocking on my door!)
    – You are ridiculed and humiliated even though you have paid your debt to society.
    – It is made clear that everyone knows WHAT you were/are in for. Most don’t care. But, the ones that do are ready, willing, and able to do something to you if they want.
    – The authorities in charge of public safety don’t give a rat’s posterior what happens to you and you are a very low priority when it comes to ensuring your safety.

    All of the above, I experienced in prison. I still experience it today. Every knock on the door from an unexpected visitor creates as much of an instant panicked response as a battle worn veteran with shell shock when they hear a car backfire. This is how I will live for the rest of my life. It will never end because even though other states have dropped people from the registry that have the same possession of materials charge as I, New Hampshire will be the very last ones to do so – if they do at all. If I had the money, I would move. But, I would also have to wonder about the reception I would receive in a new, strange place. Would the police go around informing all the neighbors? Will the new state force me to wear a bracelet which I cannot begin to be able to afford?

    So, yes, I am still in prison – only outside the chain-link fences and the razor wire.

    This is what life is like for those of us on the Registry – whether we choose to face it or not.

    1. AvatarDave

      Wow I thought it was just me I have this problem as well a knock on the door sends me down the panic attack hole and the phone gives me the creeps when it goes off is it another lawyer with bad news?, cops?, probation?. I’m a man and this sexual blacklisting all got to me once when i finished probation and I had a little mental break down and started yell profanities as loud as I could in my house braking some things and before I knew it my house was surrounded by police cars at least 4 and they were pounding on the front and back doors. I opened the door and they told me my neighbors reported hearing women and children screaming inside my house. I told them to come in and have a look and explained the stress just got to me. They left and told me i’m lucky to have neighbors that care I said RIGHT in the most sarcastic way possible. I hate this system for what it has done to me and i’m not ok with it. I’m not guilty and my case is still going on and if I win I will make sure there there is a very big price to pay. Me and this system will never be done.

    2. AvatarH n H

      Dave, I also know the whole “knock at the door” paranoia. I live it daily as well. My uncle rang my doorbell a few weeks ago, and instantly I panicked, snooping out through the curtains to see if the police were here or something. Like you, I am not guilty of the crime I was accused of and fought the outlandish charges which had been completely blown out of proportion to secure my felony. I also appealed, it went on for nearly 3 years and yes I made it all the way to the Supreme Court. My lawyer was 98 – 99% certain I was going to have my charges overturned, Wow was he wrong. The appeals court literally made stuff up to rewrite the events to make their own narrative of events to secure their conviction. Clearly, events were perverted for the states own agenda, even if the facts didn’t support the charges. Don’t forget the appeals court has one agenda, to uphold the decision found in the trial. And if you take it further, the Supreme Court can just say “denied”, then you’re sunk. Been there, done that, am living it. I’m a single male in my 40’s, and I know noone will ever date me again. The registry has destroyed me and taken everything from me. And I really take notice of anyone saying “you have only yourself to blame”. Those who quickly judge don’t care about facts, all they feel like doing is hating, and justified hatred (in their minds) is as powerful of an ego boost as drugs.

      I wish you well, but remember, there are people who see this injustice. I for one would like to see all “sex offenses” where a consensual teen is involved be made into a civil matter with heavy fines levied. If the courts can fight to charge an underage individual as an adult for murder, then it shows clearly that individual IS capable of doing things they shouldn’t. But the courts have it both ways, lucky for them. However, in the landscape we find ourselves with private run prisons, corrupt courts and the registry, it’s a HUGE battle, and one we can’t do as one person alone. I for one thought we lived in the land of the free, not the land of money hungry corrupt politicians hell bent on destroying lives for their own gain.

    3. Avatardave

      Wow your case is a mirror image of mine I won the appeal they said the judge should have directed the verdict as no guilty. This means they think i’m not guilty. Reversed and remanded then the idiot state took it to Supreme court and they decided my lawyer waived my right to the argument that makes me not guilty like that somehow makes me guilty beyond reasonable doubt sorry they are wrong and we will never be done until they make this right. I will be having a PCR hearing soon its their last chance to fix it.

  7. AvatarRajendra

    I cannot live in the US being labeled as a sex offender. I know in my heart that I am not what the label represents. But that does not make my life any easier in the US, even in a church I am discriminated. I find not forgivance. The supervision/probation overlords are a big bully designed to make our life more miserable than it already is.

    I am a naturalized US citizen. I went to college in this country, had a decent career and was in the process of bringing my family to the US. An unfortunate event happened in my life and I ended up in the registry. I recently received a letter from USCIS that they are denying my family’s immigration visa, unless if I can prove according to their narrative, which I don’t know who to. I find it difficult to travel outside. They system is designed so we rot and pass away. The system is not designed to give people a second change. They force us to take those sex addiction or sex offender classes just to prove their narrative. There is no good prospect for a better job or career, family, a decent place called home, nothing, it seems surviving finding oneself at the edge of being homeless with constant fear of losing a temporary rented room, jobless when with a minimum wage one, no meaningful human relationship, cannot go online to dating website or social website, cannot go to a bar to meet other adults, have to be in that same room when the overlords come banging on the door at any time, go see the overloards every month, is this life? what am I doing? is death the freedom from this misery that they call life? Where is forgiveness? where is a second chance? where is love? Where is God?

  8. AvatarRobert Hogg

    I’ve been on the list for 20 years and never until here a week or so ago violated it (as they say) it wasn’t for a sex crime it was for driving my wife’s car to the probation office they are coming up with anyway to violate u here on it just drove a car that wasn’t on the sor now I will most likely lose everything I have ,I know I could win a court case but the money lawyers want I don’t have to give ,they know your backs against the wall so they try to milk everything they can out u .I need help very bad but have no where to turn ,I live in tenn. If anyone can help me here is the email to get in touch mistyelrod3@gmail .please here me and my family this isn’t right for anyone.

    1. AvatarMaestro

      This is why I keep saying: SOME ONE PLEEEEAAAAASE FIGHT THE PROBATION DEPARTMENTS, NOT JUST THE REGISTRY!

      Thank you.

  9. AvatarBrian

    For those interested, here is a link to the report:
    http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3248&context=jclc
    It begins on page 4.

    Interestingly, the first recommendation offered is “civil” institutional confinement after the sentence is served. If the psychiatric evaluation shows the person is still dangerous, that person should be confined until the evaluations show they “can be released without danger to the public.”

    Yep, some things never change.

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