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Prior criminal record <br />All sex offenders <br />Arrests and convictions for minor traffic <br />offenses, public drunkenness, and <br />other petty crimes are often not <br />entered into official criminal records. <br />Since official records formed the basis <br />for this study's statistics on arrests and <br />convictions, these statistics understate <br />levels of contact with the justice <br />system. Statistics shown throughout <br />this report on arrests and convictions <br />pertain mostly to arrests and convic- <br />tions for felonies and serious <br />misdemeanors. <br />Statistics on prior arrests in this section <br />of the report do not include the impris- <br />onment offense for which the sex <br />offender was in prison in 1994. <br />At the time the 9,691 male sex offend- <br />ers were arrested for the sex crime that <br />resulted in their imprisonment - <br />- 78.5% (7,607 of the 9,691 men) had <br />been arrested at least one earlier time <br />(table 5) <br />• half had 3 or more prior arrests <br />for some type of crime <br />• 58.4% (5,660 men) had at least one <br />prior criminal conviction <br />• 13.9% (1,347 men) had a prior <br />conviction for a violent sex offense <br />• 4.6% (446 men) had been convicted <br />for a sex crime against a child <br />• nearly a quarter had served time in a <br />State or Federal prison at least once <br />before for some type of crime. <br />All 9,691 were in prison in 1994 <br />because they had been arrested and <br />convicted for a sex offense. For 71.5% <br />of the 9,691 men (6,929), that arrest <br />was their first ever for a violent sex <br />crime. In other words, these 6,929 men <br />had no previous arrest for a sex <br />offense. For the remaining 28.5% <br />(2,762 men), that arrest was not their <br />first sex offense arrest. Some had <br />been arrested once before for a sex <br />crime and some two or more times <br />before. <br />To illustrate, one of the 9,691 sex <br />offenders in this study had his first <br />arrest for a sex crime in 1966, when he <br />was age 19; he was also arrested for <br />sex crimes in the 1970's and 1980's, in <br />three different States. The arrest for his <br />imprisonment offense was in 1982. In <br />the early part of 1983, 4 months after <br />his arrest, he was convicted of sexual <br />assault and began serving a 25 -year <br />prison term. Eleven years later, in 1994 <br />at age 47, he was released. <br />For 75% of the 9,691 sex offenders, <br />their 1994 release represents their first <br />release since being sentenced for their <br />sex offense. The remaining 25% had <br />previously served time under the same <br />sentence, had been released, had <br />violated one or more conditions of their <br />parole and, consequently, were <br />returned to prison to continue serving <br />time still remaining on their sentence. <br />Table 5. Prior criminal record of sex offenders released from prison in 1994, <br />by type of sex offender <br />Prior to the sex crime for which imprisoned <br />All <br />Rapists <br />Sexual <br />assaulters <br />Percent with at least 1 prior arrest for - a <br />4.5 <br />5.0 <br />4.2 <br />Any crime <br />78.5% <br />83.1% <br />76.3% <br />Any sex offense <br />28.5 <br />28.7 <br />28.4 <br />Sex offense against a child <br />10.3 <br />5.7 <br />12.5 <br />Prior arrests for any crimea <br />Mean <br />4.5 <br />5.0 <br />4.2 <br />Median <br />3 <br />3 <br />2 <br />Percent with at least 1 prior conviction for - a <br />Any crime <br />58.4% <br />62.9% <br />56.2% <br />Any sex offense <br />13.9 <br />14.6 <br />13.5 <br />Sex offense against a child <br />4.6 <br />3.4 <br />5.2 <br />Prior convictions for any crimea <br />Mean <br />1.8 <br />2.0 <br />1.7 <br />Median <br />1 <br />1 <br />1 <br />Percent with prior prison sentence for any crimea <br />23.7% <br />28% <br />21.6% <br />Percent who were first releases' <br />74.9% <br />66.9% <br />78.7% <br />Total released 9,691 3,115 6,576 <br />Note: The 9,691 sex offenders were released in 15 States. <br />'Prior" does not include the arrest, conviction, or prison sentence that was the reason <br />the sex offenders were in prison in 1994. Persons with no prior arrest or prior convictions <br />were coded zero and were included in the calculations of mean and median priors. Calculation <br />of prior convictions excluded Ohio, and calculation of prior prison sentences excluded Ohio and <br />Virginia. <br />'Data on first releases are based on releases from 13 States. First releases include only those <br />offenders leaving prison for the first time since beginning their sentence. First releases exclude <br />those who left prison in 1994 but who had previously been released under the same sentence <br />and had returned to prison for violating the conditions of release. <br />Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from Prison in 1994 11 <br />