NCJ Number
152905
Date Published
1994
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This report presents data on sexual assaults and sexual assault offenders in Virginia between 1986 and 1990.
Abstract
According to the Virginia State Police, there were 2,008 rapes reported in the State in 1992, 79 percent of which resulted in an arrest. Although sex crimes (rapes and other sex offenses) accounted for 1 percent of all arrests in Virginia in 1992, sex offenders accounted for 6 percent of all new admissions to Virginia prisons. By comparison, drug offenders accounted for 5 percent of all arrests and 31 percent of all new prison admissions. Except as noted, the findings in this report are the result of an analysis of 3,689 offenders convicted of felony- level sexual assaults in Virginia between 1986 and 1990. The data were obtained from Virginia's Pre/Post-Sentence Investigation Database, which contains extensive automated information from the presentence or postsentence investigation reports completed by probation officers. Three out of four sex offenses occurred in a private residence, and 80 percent of the victims of convicted sex offenders were under 18 years old. Four out of five convicted sex offenders knew their victim. Child victims were more likely than adults to be assaulted in their own home and repeatedly victimized by their attacker. Almost one-half of convicted sex offenders had previously undergone some form of mental health treatment. Sixty-three percent of convicted sex offenders had a prior criminal conviction. Both judges and juries gave longer prison sentences if the victim and offender were strangers and if the victim was an adult. Extensive data figures