In some states public urination, having sex on a beach,[1] or unlawful imprisonment of a minor also constitute sexual offenses.
In the modern world of technology, many jurisdictions are reforming their laws to prevent the over-prosecution of sex offenders and focusing on crimes involving a victim.
[9] According to the OJP,[10] the recidivism rate for sex offenders has been shown to be lower than any other crime except murder in New York State.
[11] The recidivism rate for chikans and voyeurs is considerably higher than for other sex offenses, according to the Crime White Paper 2015 published by the Ministry of Justice of Japan.
Child molesters were, on average, five years older than violent offenders who committed their crimes against adults.
[13]} However, the quality of the studies that link various factors to sexual recidivism risk vary widely in terms of methodological rigor.
[14][15] Of these classifications, empirical actuarial tools are the most methodologically rigorous because they contain explicit empirical risk factors, defined in advance, that are combined mechanically using explicitly defined guidelines into a score or risk category, and then linked to a recidivism probability estimate.
This scale is based on demographic and criminal history data, for example, age at release and number of prior sex offenses.
[13][17] Despite these shortcomings, the Static-99R is arguably the highest quality tool, in terms of methodological rigor, that is widely available to clinicians to assess sex offender risk of recidivism.
[18] These include restrictions on being in the presence of minors, living in proximity to a school or daycare center, owning toys (or other items of interest to minors), or receiving a mark on their passport that informs authorities of destination countries for international travel.
Most states also restrict where convicted sex offenders can live after their release, prohibiting residency within a designated distance of schools and daycare centers (usually 1,000–2,000 feet (300–610 m)).
Guided by the 2007 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, sex offenders must avoid such areas as schools, bus stops, gyms, recreation centers, playgrounds, parks, swimming pools, libraries, nursing homes, and places of worship by 500 to 2,500 feet (150 to 760 m).
Registration data includes the offender's sex, height, weight, date of birth, identifying characteristics (if any), statutes violated, fingerprints and a current photograph.
An offender's email addresses, chat room IDs and instant-messaging aliases must be surrendered to authorities.
In Colorado, an offender must re-register when moving to a new address, changing their legal name, employment, volunteer activity, identifying information used online or enrollment status at a post-secondary educational institution.
A web-based registration list may be found on county websites, which identifies adult convicted sex offenders who are sexually violent predators convicted of felony sexual acts, crimes of violence or failure to register as required.
[28] The use of aversion therapy remains controversial, and is an ethical issue related to the professional practice of behavior analysis.
For male sex offenders with severe or extreme paraphilias, physical castration appears to be effective.
People convicted of any sex crime are "transformed into a concept of evil, which is then personified as a group of faceless, terrifying, and predatory devils", who are, contrary to scientific evidence, perceived as a constant threat, habitually waiting for an opportunity to attack.
[33][37][38][39][40] This can motivate legislators to pass knee-jerk laws[41] to address public hysteria, echoing a "populist punitiveness" perspective.
[47] According to the U.S. Department of Justice, sex offender recidivism is 5.3%,[48] the lowest for any type of crime except homicide.