| FALSE | "There is a 90 percent likelihood of recidivism for sexual crimes against children. Ninety percent. That is the standard. That is their record." |
Comment made by: U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (FL) before the US House of Representatives |
| 4-21-2005 U.S. House of Representatives:
TRAGEDIES IN FLORIDA REQUIRE STRENGTHENING OF LAWS |
.Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I read with horror, outrage, and disgust the news accounts of the death of Jesse Lunsford in Florida. Little 9-year-old Jesse Lunsford was buried alive in garbage bags at the hands of a sick, depraved, and despicable John Evander Cooey, a convicted sex offender who has admitted to raping and killing God's little angel, 9-year-old Jesse.
I am more than troubled by this and other murders, including the death of Sarah Lunde, a 13-year-old, again in Florida, killed by David Ostott; David Ostott being another convicted rapist, a violent rapist convicted in 1997 for violently raping a woman and walking the streets in Florida a few short years later. .......
There is a 90 percent likelihood of recidivism for sexual crimes against children. Ninety percent. That is the standard. That is their record. That is the likelihood. Ninety percent. Yet we say that the prisons are too crowded and we probably have to let these people out early on good behavior.
Oftentimes they tell their probation officers and the courts that they are sick and they need help; and yet they are told, well, you will have to find it somewhere in the mental health corridor of your c
| U.S. Department of Justice 2003 Study on Sex Offender Recidivism |
Recidivism of sex offenders released in 1994 Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Langan, P. A., & Levin, D. J. NCJ-198281
Presents, for the first time, data on the rearrest, reconviction, and reimprisonment of 9,691 male sex offenders, including 4,295 child molesters, who were tracked for 3 years after their release from prisons in 15 States in 1994. The 9,691 are two-thirds of all the male sex offenders released from prisons in the United States in 1994. The study represents the largest followup ever conducted of convicted sex offenders following discharge from prison and provides the most comprehensive assessment of their behavior after release.
The study is the best study to use when speaking about all kinds of sex offenders as Rep. Foley was. The reason is because the study excludes no one they followed every sex offender released from prison. Their findings were 5.3% were rearrested and 3.5% were reconvicted. I find it hard to believe that Rep. Foley is not aware of this as it has been cited in Congress many times.
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