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Recidivism in Sexual Offenders

Sexual offenders, in particular, child molesters and rapists, often spend long periods in jails and prisons because of their sexual misbehavior. These offenders are viewed by the majority of the members of society as predators. Believing that once a sexual offender, always a sexual offender, people fear them and feel they are a constant menace. This is particularly true of those persons residing in neighborhoods into which these offenders are released, some of whom even panic at times. However, when released into the community, the offenders are generally strictly controlled. For example, they may be tracked by electronic monitoring, required to comply with mandatory registration, and subjected to myriad other laws, laws that have often created more problems and whose effect on recidivism has been questioned (e.g., Levenson & Zgoba, 2015). In spite of the above precautions, questions that face correctional officials include whether these offenders will recidivate and, if so, how soon? Numerous studies, including several meta-analyses, have been conducted over the past decades in an attempt to ascertain the answers to the above questions. The research also sought to find out, among other things, whether child molesters tend to recidivate sooner than rapists, whether older sexual offenders recidivate before younger ones, or vice versa, and what factors might contribute to non-recidivism. In this issue of the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (IJOTCC), an interesting and well-documented article by Christine Petterson and colleagues examines whether scores on the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI) may predict sexual recidivism. To this effect, they conclude that the Assault and Verbal Hostility subscale of the BDHI may be such a predictor. Obviously, other factors, including the personality of the offenders, whether hostile or not, also influences their behavior and possible recidivism. Indeed, a severe degree of antisocial personality disorder or borderline behavior, coupled with unrepressed hostility, may be at the basis of their recidivistic behaviors. Among the many studies on recidivism is that of Hanson and Bussiere (1998), who reported a total recidivism rate of 13.4% (including 12.7% for child molester and 18.9% for rapist subgroups) among a group of 23,393 offenders. A study from the U.S.