Offending Histories and Typologies of Suspected Sexual Offenders Identified Via Untested Sexual Assault Kits

• NCJ Number: 255795
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Dated: 2020
• Author(s): Rachel Lovell; Wenxuan Huang; Laura Overman; Daniel Flannery; Joanna Klingenstein
• Date Published: 2020
• Length: 10 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2015-AK-BX-K009, 2016-AK-BX-K016, 2018-AK-BX-0001
• Sponsoring Agency: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the criminal offending histories and typologies of suspected sexual offenders identified from an initiative that monitored the testing of thousands of previously untested sexual assault kits (SAKs).

Abstract

The study advanced knowledge of sexual offenders by incorporating data from criminal justice system records ("detected" criminal offending) with data from newly tested SAKs that were not previously adjudicated ("undetected" sexual offending). The findings indicate that the sexual offenders identified from SAKs had extensive criminal histories and often continued to offend after the SAK-associated sexual assault and were likely to have criminal histories that did not include a prior arrest(s) for rape. A latent class analysis identified three classes of offenders based on their offending history, "High-Volume Generalists," "Low-Volume Offenders," and "Sexual Specialists." Most were generalists, with a large proportion committing many serious crimes. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 49 references (publisher abstract modified)