Informing/Educating a Journalist

In Greenville County, SC, nine out of the 560 people forced to register for a sex offense were found not to be living where they said they were living or failed to register.  What should have been the takeaway in this story:  None of the 560 people was found to have committed a new sex offense.  Isn’t this what society is most concerned about?

Peyton Furtado is a talented journalist who reported the facts that she found in a government report.  Unfortunately, journalists often prefer government studies (which can be slanted) over ones from academia.

Stated in the article, “Operation Full Circle helps South Carolina deputies find more than 500 registered sex offenders”, was the following:  According to the Department of Justice, 14% of males with a past sex offense commit a new sex crime within five years of release.  The research used in this article comes from SMART (Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking):  “Chapter 5: Adult Sex Offender Recidivism” by Roger Przybylski.

FAC has sent information to the journalist [email protected] and station management [email protected].  Past experience has shown that it takes a number of people reaching out to a journalist to get the misleading data corrected.  We encourage other people to do so but only in a positive, supportive manner.  Please do not just copy and paste but rather paraphrase and give your email a more personal touch.

Why are we doing this?  It is important we stay abreast of what is happening around the country as we appreciate the support, input, and assistance we receive from other groups facing the same oppression from the government and their agencies, which continue to support clearly unconstitutional treatment of our population, thereby creating a less-favored class.

Possible Talking Points:

1. This SMART study, that was used by the journalist, quoted a study performed by Harris and Hanson (2004) which showed a 5-year sexual recidivism rate of 14%. ACCORDING TO SMART, HARRIS AND HANSON “GENERATED RECIDIVISM ESTIMATES BASED ON NEW CHARGES OR CONVICTIONS FOR SEXUAL OFFENSES.”   NOT REPORTED IS HOW MANY OF THESE NEW CHARGES WERE TURNED INTO CONVICTIONS!!!  HOW MANY WERE TECHNICAL VIOLATIONS?
2. FOOTNOTE #20, REFERRING TO ANOTHER STUDY THAT HANSON COAUTHORED, STATES: “THE DEFINITION OF RECIDIVISM VARIED WIDELY, RANGING FROM ARREST TO CONVICTIONS AND REPORTS PROVIDED BY PROBATION OFFICERS.” SO, HOW MANY WERE ACTUALLY CONVICTIONS?  HOW MANY WERE TECHNICAL VIOLATIONS?
3. There were many studies given in this SMART report, with the first one given being “perhaps the largest single study of sex offender recidivism conducted to date, carried out by Langan, Schmitt and Durose (2003).” This study “accounted for about two-thirds of all male sex offenders released from state prisons in the United States” in 1994.  Researchers found a sexual recidivism rate of 5.3 percent within 3 years of release.  WHAT WAS NOT GIVEN WAS HOW MANY OF THE CHARGES WERE TURNED INTO CONVICTIONS!!!  HOW MANY WERE TECHNICAL VIOLATIONS?  But still the re-offense rate was NOT 14% for a 5-year follow-up period.
4. Another important study in the SMART report (because of its large sample size) was performed by Sample and Bray (2003). Their findings resulted in a 4.8 percent sexual recidivism rate for 5 years.  HOW MANY WERE ACTUALLY CONVICTIONS?  HOW MANY WERE TECHNICAL VIOLATIONS?  But still the re-offense rate was NOT 14% for a 5-year follow-up period.
5. The SMART report used some of the larger studies on the sexual recidivism rates at the beginning of its discussion, where the rates were considerably lower than the 14% used by the journalist. Why did she choose to use a larger rate from a smaller study that followed in the report?  Possibly Ms. Furtado did not read the SMART report but used the 14% rate from another source.
6. In 2022, NARSOL compiled a “State by State Recidivism Studies” If you choose to use this information, it is copyrighted by NARSOL, so you must acknowledge NARSOL as the source of this information.
7. We need to stop the myth of a 14% sexual recidivism rate for a 5-year release period for people whose most serious offense was a sexual offense.