1. Female and Male Sex Offenders : A
Comparison of Recidivism Patterns and
Risk Factors
By: Kayla Bechtel
CJUS-4411-02

2. Key Words
• Here are a few key terms that my article used and I wanted
to make you aware of before I used them:
• Sex Offender: someone who has been convicted of a sex
crime.
• Recidivism rate: The behavior of a repeat or habitual
criminal. A measurement of the rate at which offenders
commit other crimes, either by arrest or conviction
baselines, after being released from incarceration.
• Risk Factor: is something that's likely to increase the
chances that a particular event will occur.

3. What it’s all about:
• Using 780 matched female and male sex offenders in the
state of New York, this study explored the similarities and
differences between recidivism patterns and risk factors
for the two offender groups.
• This study went out trying to prove the differences between
female sex offenders and male sex offenders, even though
through most studies there has been no evidence to back
these claims.

4. Comparisons and Differences Between Female
and Male Sex Offenders:
• Female Sex offenders were more likely to victimize
strangers were males were more likely to victimize extended
family.
• Females were more likely to admit to being abused as a child
and having poor relationships with their parents
• Females were more likely to victimize males, and males were
more likely to victimize females.
• The one comparison: age, ethnicity, educational level, job
stress, and other life stressors.

5. Recidivism Risk Factors:
• Consistent research has suggested that male offenders who
sexually reoffend are likely to be young in age, strangers to
their victims, single, unemployed, less educated, and to select
male victims
• Things that cause a recidivism rate to skyrocket: deviant
sexual interest, antisocial personality traits, prior sexual
crimes and engagement in a diversity of sexual
crimes, previous adult convictions, numerous victims in one
incident, and sexually offending at an early age are related to
an increased risk of sexual recidivism for male sex offenders

6. Method to their madness:
• Data was retrieved from the New York Sex Offender
database. This included demographics, offense
characteristics, and victim information.
• Criminal histories were given by the New York State
Division of Criminal Justice Services.
• Things that were also used to help determine
similarities and differences: characteristics related
to arrest, conviction, disposition, and sentencing
events.

7. Results
• Males were more likely to resemble general
offenders than females were.
• Females were less like than males to have served a
sentence before this.
• Female sex offenders were more like to victimize a
child under the age of 12, where as males were more
likely to victimize females between the ages of 13-17.

8. Results Continued
• Females were less likely than males to get
rearrested after they committed the 1st
offence.
• Males were more likely to get arrested for
nonsexual offenses than females as well.

9. Summing It Up
• It was suggested that there are numerous differences between
female and male sex offenders in terms of offender
demographics and offense characteristics.
• Male sex offenders were significantly more likely to be
rearrested for both sexual and nonsexual offenses and to have
extensive criminal histories that included prior drug, violent
felony, and sexual offense arrests, as well as prior
incarceration terms and prior supervision violations.
• Females were more likely to victimize males and males were
more likely to victimize females as I stated earlier on.

10. Tying it all Together
• What does this have to do with our book and the theories we have learned you may
ask?
• The labeling theory: is the view of deviance according to which being labeled as a
"deviant" leads a person to engage in deviant behavior.
• Once a criminal is labeled a criminal, depending on the crime, and how one was
treated during their time spent in prison, it is said that if they will be treated like a
criminal why not act like one.
• “Being adjudicated a felon significantly and substantially increases the likelihood of
recidivism in comparison with those who have adjudication withheld” (Lilly, Cullen &
Ball, 151).
• This article only proves that whether you are a man or a woman, if you are going to
be treated like a criminal and if you do not receive the proper treatment for you
“disease” then whether it’s a sexual offense or not the recidivism rate will only
continue to go up.

11. Works Cited
• Freeman, N. J., & Sandler, J. C. (2008). Female and male sex
offenders: a comparison of recidivism patterns and risk
factors. Retrieved from
http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/23/10/1394
• Lilly, J. R., Ball, R. A., & Cullen, F. T. (2011). Criminological
theory, context and consequences. (5 ed.). Sage
Publications, Inc.