Sex Offenders and Sex Crime Recidivism: Investigating the Role of Sentence Length and Time Served. (December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Budd, Kristen; Desmond, Scott A.
• Is Part Of: International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology. Volume 58:Number 12(2014)
• Page Start: 1481
• Page End: 1499
• Publication Date: 2014-12
• Subjects: sex offenders -- sex crimes -- recidivism -- sentence length -- time served; Criminals -- Rehabilitation -- Periodicals; Criminal psychology -- Periodicals; Violent offenders -- Periodicals; Sex offenders -- Periodicals; Criminology -- Periodicals; 364.3
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X13507421
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-624X

Abstract

The relationship between criminal justice sanctions and sex crime recidivism remains largely unexplored. Therefore, using a sample of 8, 461 previously incarcerated male sex offenders from 13 states in the United States, we focus on the sentence meted out for the sex crime conviction and the amount of time sex offenders served as a result of their conviction. Sex offenders were grouped into four categories: rapists, sexual assaulters, child molesters, and all sex offenders combined. Recidivism was operationalized as rearrest and reconviction. Findings suggest how recidivism is operationalized matters. When recidivism is measured as rearrest for another sex offense, sentence length and time served are unrelated to sex crime recidivism. On the other hand, when recidivism is operationalized as reconviction for another sex offense, sentence length is positively related to recidivism for rapists, sexual assaulters, child molesters, and all sex offenders combined, while time served is negatively related to recidivism for child molesters and all sex offenders combined.