Ohio Recidivism Study

Ten-Year Recidivism Follow-Up Of 1989 Sex Offender Releases (PDF)

Key cites:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The baseline recidivism rate of sex offenders followed-up for ten years after release from prison was 34%. This rate was comprised of:

Recommitment for a New Crime 22.3 %

Sex Offense 8.0 %
Non-Sex Offense 14.3 %

Recommitment for a Technical Violation 11.7 %

Sex Offense 1.3 %
Sex Lapse 1.7 %
Non-sex Related 8.7 %

The total sex-related recidivism rate, including technical violations of supervision conditions, was 11.0%.

Recidivism rates differed considerably based on a victim typology:

Sex offender type...............General recidivism ......Sex recidivism

Rapists – (adult victims) ..........56.6% .............................. 17.5%
Child Molester – extrafamilial. . 29.2% ............................... 8.7%
Child Molester – incest .............13.2% ................................7.4%

Sex offenders who returned for a new sex related offense did so within a few years of release. Of all the sex offenders who came back to an Ohio prison for a new sex offense, one half did so within two years, and two-thirds within three years.

Paroled Sex offenders completing basic sex offender programming (level 1) while incarcerated appeared to have a somewhat lower recidivism rate than those who did not have programming. This was true both for recidivism of any type (33.9% with programming recidivated compared with 55.3% without programming) and sex-related recidivism (7.1% with programming recidivated compared with 16.5% without programming).