title: Lifetime criminal history of sex offenders seen for psychological assessment in five decades.
abstract: A sample of 2,190 sex offenders seen between 1966 and 2009 was compared on lifetime sexual and all offending, using charges, convictions, court appearances, and self-report as criteria. Of these various criteria, between 47.4% and 81.1% reoffended. Canadian child abuse reporting laws, which came into effect in the 1980s, were associated with increased charges and convictions for offenders, who victimized children, and with a reduction in their longer term reoffense rates. Immigration and population mobility, use of aliases, study follow-up time, and self-reported undetected sex crimes influenced reoffense rates. Results indicate that sex offenders continued to have short prison sentences and/or spend little or no time incarcerated during the latter part of the 20th century.
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. langevin95@sympatico.ca
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Langevin
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Curnoe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057237:Criminals; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D008875:Middle Aged; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012742:Sex Offenses; D055815:Young Adult