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Prior criminal record A// sex offenders Arrests and convictions for minor traffic offenses, public drunkenness, and other petty crimes are often not entered into official criminal records. Since official records formed the basis for this study's statistics on arrests and convictions, these statistics understate levels of contact with the justice system. Statistics shown throughout this report on arrests and convictions pertain mostly to arrests and convic- tions for felonies and serious misdemeanors. Statistics on prior arrests in this section of the report do not include the impris- onment offense for which the sex offender was in prison in 1994. At the time the 9,691 male sex offend- ers were arrested for the sex crime that resulted in their imprisonment - 78.5% (7,607 of the 9,691 men) had been arrested at least one earlier time (table 5) half had 3 or more prior arrests for some type of crime • 58.4% (5,660 men) had at least one prior criminal conviction 13.9% (1 ,347 men) had a prior conviction for a violent sex offense • 4.6% (446 men) had been convicted for a sex crime against a child • nearly a quarter had served time in a State or Federal prison at least once before for some type of crime. All 9,691 were in prison in 1994 because they had been arrested and convicted for a sex offense. For 71 .5% of the 9,691 men (6,929), that arrest was their first ever for a violent sex crime. In other words, these 6,929 men had no previous arrest for a sex offense. For the remaining 28.5% (2,762 men), that arrest was not their first sex offense arrest. Some had been arrested once before for a sex crime and some two or more times before. To illustrate, one of the 9,691 sex offenders in this study had his first arrest for a sex crime in 1966, when he was age 19; he was also arrested for sex crimes in the 1970's and 1980's, in three different States. The arrest for his imprisonment offense was in 1982. In the early part of 1983, 4 months after his arrest, he was convicted of sexual assault and began serving a 25-year prison term. Eleven years later, in 1994 at age 47, he was released. For 75% of the 9,691 sex offenders, their 1994 release represents their first release since being sentenced for their sex offense. The remaining 25% had previously served time under the same sentence, had been released, had violated one or more conditions of their parole and, consequently, were returned to prison to continue serving time still remaining on their sentence. Table 5. Prior criminal record of sex offenders released from prison in 1994, by type of sex offender Sexual Prior to the sex crime for which imprisoned All Rapists assaulters Percent with at least ? prior arrest for -' Any crime 78.5% 83.1% 76.3% Any sex offense 28.5 28.7 28.4 Sex offense against a child 10.3 5.7 '12.5 Prior arrests for any crime' Mean Median Percent with at least 7 prior conviction for Any crime Any sex offense Sex offense against a child Prior convictions for any crime° Mean Median a.s s.o a2 3 3 2 58.4% 62.9% 56.2% '13.9 '14.6 '13.5 4.6 3.4 5.2 Percent with prior prison sentence for any crime° Percent who were first releases° 1 .8 2.0 1 .7 ? ? ? 23.7% 28% 21 .6 74.9 % 66.9 % 78.7° Total released 9,69'1 3,115 6,576 Note: The 9,69'1 sex offenders were released in 1 S States. °"Prior" does not include the arrest, conviction, or prison sentence that was the reason the sex offenders were in prison in '1994. Persons with no prior arrest or prior convictions were coded zero and were included in the calculations of mean and median priors. Calculation of prior convictions excluded Ohio, and calculation of prior prison sentences excluded Ohio and Virginia. °Data on first releases are based on releases from 13 States. First releases include only those offenders leaving prison for the first time since beginning their sentence. First releases exclude [hose who left prison in '1994 but who had previously been released under the same sentence and had returned to prison for violating the conditions of release. Recidivism of Sex Offenders Re/eased from Prison in 9994 11 50A-60