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sexuality in our courts). It has been carefully estimated by Dr. Alfred Kinsey that not more than 5 percent of our convicted sex offenders are of a dangerous variety, exercising force or injury upon a victim. Crime reports support this finding. Homicide associated with sex crimes is unusual.

There is no possible doubt about the prevalence of sexual deviation in the population. This is something quite different, however, from the "vicious sex murderers" commonly portrayed who, fórtunately, are far less frequent in incidence than any of the categories of serious criminals who plague the states. The late Professor Edwin H. Sutherland attempted to evaluate the significance of atrocious sex crimes as measured by the prevalence of rape.murders. The data he drew are of particular interest in revealing that the public has been misled in the notion that murder is commonly committed by "sex fiends." When the sex offender does commit homicide, it is very often a panic reaction of one who fears discovery rather than an expression of sexuality as such.

2. That the victims of sex attack are "ruined for life.”—It sometimes appears that the relatives and friends of the victim are attempting to assure that the molested child or woman will indeed be ruined. And in some instances the individual does carry psychic scars after such an experience. Characteristically the damage is done far more, however, by the well-intentioned associates of the victim or by public authorities than by the aggressor. This is not to condone the offense, but merely to emphasize that its implicit danger has been grossly exaggerated and that the possible traumatizing of the individual is almost always a product of cultural and individual responses to the experience rather than because of the intrinsic emotional value of that experience itself.

Certain it is from the evidence in other societies that such experiences as rape, "carnal abuse," defloration, incest, homosexuality, or "indecent" exposure do not have the effects that are expected

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in our culture; in fact, in many preliterate societies these acts are characteristic and expected events. This is merely to reiterate that it is the cultural situation which defines sexual behavior and individuals' response to it. More than this, however, it is apparent that the young individual in our own society who has not been exposed to an excess of parental and community hysteria about sex can absorb the experience of a socially disapproved sexual assault without untoward consequences. It is where severe neurotic fears have already been implanted or where they are imposed after the encounter that lasting injury may be done.

3. That sex offenders are usually recidivists. Sex offenders have one of the lowest rates as "repeaters" of all types of crime. Among serious crimes homicide alone has a lower rate of recidivism. Careful studies of large samples of sex criminals show that most of them get in trouble only once. Of those who do repeat, a majority commit some crime other than sex. Only 7 percent of those convicted of serious sex crimes are arrested again for a sex crime. Those who recidivate are characteristically minor offenders such as peepers, exhibitionists, homosexuals—rather than criminals of serious menace. This question of recidivism is one of considerable importance in reone lation to state policy in handling the problem, since the danger to be anticipated from sex criminals is closely related to their repetition of offenses. The fact is, as revealed by official data,·· . that most sex offenders do not repeat their crimes; they are not "habitual." Statistics from several sources bear out this conclusion.

In the reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation data are provided each year for 25 types of offenses as to the percentage of persons arrested who had prior criminal records of any kind. Among the recidivism rates reported are those for rape and "other sex offenses." The sex offenders consistently rank very low among repeaters: rape

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