Expert: Jean M Mahan - 4/12/2010

Question
You previously stated that the recidivism rate of sex offenders is 66% and higher -- I didn't see a date or a reference for this stat, and wonder if you would still hold to that and could give a source reference.  I am a director of a non-profit and families of SO come to us for support (not professional) and I want to make sure I have good information when I speak with them or write for our newsletter.
Thank you.

Answer
I am glad that you are making this effort to verify information and not just dissemination myths and misperceptions to the public. Now when I generalized the 66% it was based on the outcome rates of treatment providers that I knew in Illinois prisons. Some of the programs had extremely good outcomes, but some had extremely poor outcomes, so I just kind of averaged the numbers of offenders in all these programs and estimated a general recidivism rate from that. Not exactly good research. The programs though ranged from treatment for first time non-violent incest all the way to cannibalistic serial killers. The treatment for each type of group follows some general guidelines for all offenders despite what level of offending, but differed quite a bit in the amount of treatment provided, ranging from once a week group to 30 hour group attendance. The amount of time they were in treatment also differed significantly. In minimums, some offenders reached their release date very early after they came to treatment, some only one or two months, while others came to group for over 2 years. The serial killers had indeterminate sentences, which means they are in for life, or until the Psychologist/treatment provider assesses the risk of reoffence as very small. This according to what the provider told me, never happened before 10 years of once a week treatment and living in Sex Offender Treatment Center where they worked together and reported deviant behavior of each other. The Inpatient Treatment Centers, there were three in Illinois prisons, provided daily group and sequestered the offenders to one prison building, sometimes for the offenders own safety as well as for the group recovery effect.

Now having said all that, I believe that you can find some good stats at this site;

ATSA, www.atsa.com
and
http://www.sexual-offender-treatment.org/55.0.html

I disagree with some of their research outcomes, but have no research to support my opinions that were formed from the offender I treated.

There is one more shocking stat that I heard at a conference that I cannot document the research. This stat was quoted at the conference by a speaker; He said that the Fed Government conducted a research project with offenders that was quite different from what us treatment providers are allowed to do. The offenders were guaranteed that they would not be arrested for revealing the extent of their sexual offending crimes. The offenders then were under no pressure not to report the actual number of victims. (We regular providers are required by Federal Law to reveal to law enforcement any sexual crime that the perp admits while in treatment, these crimes were those that had not been discovered by law enforcement and for which the offender had not criminally charged and incarcerated for.) So it is easy to know that 99% at least of the offenders treated in prison do not reveal the extent of the victimization they have performed. The speaker at this conference stated that the Federal Research revealed that the average number of victims reported in this study was 66.  Again I cannot provide you with the written research on this stat. I did not ask for or write down the research he was quoting from. However he was a known expert in the field.

Hope I was able to help and to clarify some things for you. But there is something in my experience I think you need to know. A large number of the convicted offenders I dealt with offended in families where the spouse and others knew what he was doing, some even were directly involved in the offenses. I learned this from what some of the offenders told me, and from a very few of the family members I met while the offender was in prison. The ones I met who the offender stated either knew about it or was directly involved did indeed verify the information. So keep your eyes and ears open. NO I do not think every spouse knew about the offenses or participated in them, but some did.

I do not know if there is any research about that subject, sorry.