Sarah Tofte finds it striking...

(CROSS POSTED FROM ABSOLUTE ZERO) http://absolutezerounited.blogspot.com/



Friday, December 21, 2007
Sarah Tofte finds it striking...
Sarah Tofte, a researcher for Human rights watch, who we mentioned here, recently went on WYNC New York Public Radio with Pro-Sex Offender Activist Linda Pehrson. Aside from the usual blame gaming you expect from the likes of Linda Perhson and the talk of "Restorative Justice," what we found interesting was a statement made by Sarah Tofte:

"This is a number that always strikes me, that I think people don't pick up on as much, but to me I find this the most striking number. Is that every year, of all new sex crimes, eighty-seven percent of new sex crimes are committed by someone who has no previous sex crimes convictions."

The implication being that 13% of new sex crimes are committed by people who already have been convicted for sexual offenses.

If we were to compare the number of people who are sexual offenders (627,217) with the entire population of the U.S (301,139,947) we'd find that sex offenders make up roughly 0.2% of the entire population.

Going by her own statistics, I wonder what it is that Sarah Tofte finds most striking about her statistic which illustrates that such a tiny percentage of the population is accounting for a disproportionately large percentage of new sex crimes - 13% committed by 0.2% of the population.

Labels: Human Rights Watch, Linda Pehrson, Recidivism, Sarah Tofte, Sex Offender

jacey posted at 1:35 AM