New Report: Sex Offender Risk Plummets Over Time In Community

According to Dr. Karen Franklin’s blog In the news: Forensic psychology, criminology, and psychology-law, “the authors of the most widely used actuarial tool for sex offender recidivism are conceding that even sex offenders cross a ‘redemption threshold’ over time, such that their risk of committing a new sexual crime may become ‘indistinguishable from the risk presented by non-sexual offenders.’"

The study tracked “a large group of 7,740 sexual offenders drawn from 21 different samples around the world, the researchers found that those who remain free in the community for five years or more after their release are at drastically reduced risk of committing a new sex offense.”

The authors—R. Karl Hanson, Andrew J. R. Harris, Leslie Helmus and David Thornton—“challenge the notion that sex offenders represent a special case of perpetual danger. They question the need for life-time monitoring and supervision.”  The article is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.