usually occupies the eighteenth to twentieth place on the list, with "other sex offenses" ranking one tor two places higher. Moreover, in most instances of recidivists arrested for sex offenses, the prior convictions were not for sex crimes.

Federal data are borne out in the more detailed information prepared for the Report of the Mayor's Committee for the Study of Sex Offenses in New York City, on the felonious offenders convicted in the county courts there during the years 1930-1939. That study concludes that most offenders charged with sex felonies are without prior police records and that convicted sex offenders are less inclined to have had police records than other types of felons. Sixty-one percent, or 2,001 out of 3,295 convicted sex offenders, had no criminal records, as against 35 percent for all other types of felons. It was found that the recidivist sex offenders led in abduction (52 percent), whereas the recidivist rate for statutory rape was considerably less (34 percent). Moreover, the youthful (age of a high 'percentage of those convicted for statutory rape and sodomy, along with their relatively low recidivist rates, led the Committee to the conclusion that these were "transitory episodes in the life of a considerable number of sex offenders."

Even more significant was the finding of the study that sex offenders who had prior records of sex crimes represented only 9 percent of the total of 3,295 offenders studied.

The New York data on prior arrests were supported by a further study of the postconviction careers of 555 offenders convicted of sex crimes in 1930. It was discovered that only one-third of these had reappeared in a police lineup during the ensuing 12 years, "convincing proof that sex crime is not habitual behavior with the majority of sex offenders." Moreover, among the 191 offenders who were rearrested, only one-fifth were again arrested for sex crimes: 93 percent of these 555 offenders avoided further sex crimes during the 12-year period; only 7 percent reverted.

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Among the 40 offenders rearrested for sex crimes, 9 were acquitted, or discharged and among the remaining 31 only 2 were convicted three times (of indecent exposure), and 4 were convicted twice.

A study conducted by Hulsey Cason and M. J. Pescor with 500 psychopathic inmates in the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners is also of interest relative to the problem of recidivism.1 They found that 63 percent of these patients who had been released an average, of 19.2 months had no subsequent record with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Among those who were discharged under supervision, 71 percent had no subsequent record. This suggests that even among those offenders labeled psychopathic, a great majority are not habitual or repetitive. An interesting observation in this research was that 61 percent of these psychopaths were reported as having been. obedient children, although it is usually considered among authorities that the psychopathic traits, when they are to appear, at all, develop during childhood.

Data from the New Jersey Diagnostic Center reveal that between 60 and 70 percent of the sx cases referred there are first offenders. Similarly, among the psychopaths committed to St. Patrick's under, the Minnesota law, it has been shown that only one-third had prior convictions for sex offenses. The State of California notes that the proportion of persons committed to prison for sex offense who were without prior commitment is over 50 percent, whereas for all men committed it was 26 percent. Similarly low proportions of recidivism have been noted elsewhere.

4. That the minor sex offender, if unchecked, progresses to more serious types of sex crime.It is the consensus of psychiatrists, confirmed by crime statistics, that sex deviates persist in the (Continued on page 36).

1.Hulsey Cason and M.J Pescor, "A Statistical Study of 500 Paychopathic Prisoners." Public Health Reports, 61:557, 1946. See also Cason and Pescor. "A Comparative Study of Recidivists and Non-Re cidivists Among Psychopathic Federal Offenders," Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 37:236, 1946.

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