Determining the Long-Term Risks of Recidivism and
Registration Failures among Sexual Offenders.

This journal article is about what causes sexual offenders to reoffend. This article highlights two possible factors as to why recidivism is so high among sexual offenders; Static factors and dynamic factors.
Static factors are unchangeable characteristics about a person (i.e. age, previous convictions). These factors work against the person as far as an inability to change their past or class. Dynamic factors are potentially changeable (i.e. levels of empathy, pro-criminal attitudes). These work for the criminal being as they can change their future, attitude, and decisions with counseling or rehabilitation.
Other factors that have been researched in this article that have contributed to recidivism of sexual offenders are; race, having previous convictions, age and offender type (adult or child). As far as race goes, the overall findings did not “qualify a specific race”, but did find that being white did decrease the chances of recidivism and that blacks have a higher rate of recidivism than whites by 35%. Those with previous convictions seem to reoffend as well. Many sexual offenders have between one and four convictions, with several having more than four. Age and offender type seem to be predominantly middle age males of all races. Child offenders are low and so are female offenders.
This article claims registration failures correlate to higher rates of recidivism. Successful registration of sexual offenders is the best way to observe the recidivism rate, but on average 21.51% fail to register, which correlates to higher risk of that sexual offender recidivating by 65%. Those criminals who fail to register as a sexual offender online recidivate within a three-year span at a higher rate than those who don’t. Recent studies have shown that blacks and child offenders are more likely to have registration failures then white adult males, but other studies addressed in this article saw no specific correlation between race and registration.
I believe that recidivism depends solely on the person that has committed the crime. There are no absolute trends talked about in this article. Every pattern that sexual offender recidivism research began to show ended inconsistent or flogged.
Members of a minority race seemed to be more likely to recidivate, but as this article shows, blacks may have a higher percentage than whites in failing to register, but whites and Mexicans are even in recidivism, with Asians trailing not too far behind. In our area of Berrien County, the “qualified race” that recidivates the most and has the highest rate of offenders, out of 553; 358 are white males, 166 are black males, 17 are Hispanic males, 1 Asian male, 1 American Indian male, and 10 females (one being black, the rest white). One could say that obviously the white males are the “qualified race”, but one must also take into perspective that Berrien County is made up of 79% whites, 16% blacks, 4.7% Hispanics, 1.7% Asian, and .6% American Indian. Naturally, with this information, the sexual offenders of white race would be the larger percentage. Gathering information this way, by county, does not truly help to see an accurate recidivism rate (Of my own research, Cenus.com and Berrien County Offender Registration).
Most sexual offenders with previous convictions also have a higher rate of recidivism. This may be because of their lack of rehabilitation and unwillingness to change their decision making process. Those with a record of two or more convictions, of any crime, seem to keep with the pattern of criminal activity. This trend is also a clear indication that the Justice System cares more about clearing the street of “bad people” rather than rehabilitating. In the long run, I believe this could potentially hurt our society rather than protect it.
Lastly, registration failure is what I consider an immense factor in recidivism. If an offender fails to register and the Justice System fails to realize it, the offender gets off with basically a slap on the wrist; the offender is no longer considered a sexual predator. Instead of seeing this as a fresh start, they may see it as another opportunity to recidivate without getting caught. Although the trend for those who fail to register and those who recidivate lacks consistency. Blacks are more likely to have registration failures and hold the higher rate of recidivating, but child offenders, who are even more likely to have registration failures than blacks, have the lowest recidivism rate. Unfortunately, the correlations between these two issues seem to have no significance.
This article tried to determine what makes a sexual offender recidivate, but I believe that it failed. Daniel B. Freedman, the author of this article, had so many contradicting theories and results; it failed to show any substantial evidence of why recidivism exists among sexual offenders. The reasoning behind all this recidivism may never be narrowed down to a specific error or dynamic, but it will certainly continue to happen as long as our current Justice System exists.