Our country hates and demonizes sex offenders. Their punishments are often severe and life-long. We punish them far more harshly than we do any other type of offenders. And this is largely based on the fact that we believe sex offenders have “very high” recidivism rate. That is, we believe that once “let back out on the street”, sex offenders will strike again, and again. As a matter of fact, the statistic often cited is that sex offenders have an 80% chance of committing a second crime. Except… it’s just not true. Sex offenders have a 2-3% chance of repeating the crime. Take 5 minutes to watch this video. Then see if it doesn’t change your perspective.
