# Data on what % of people are sex offenders? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2019, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583 "2019-08-12T23:51:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/21 "2019-08-13T22:16:12Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Someone like Trump for example is a serial sex offender. Dozens of victims and probably has narcissism. Also this wasn’t an attempt to bring up politics, its just that there may be a connection between men with cluster B personality disorders and men who are serial sex offenders. Trump is someone who falls into both categories. But so does Ted Bundy (sociopath and serial sex offender). ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/22 "2019-08-13T23:47:29Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I’m curious where these estimates came from. Do you have some cites? [https://www.cdc.gov/features/sexualviolence/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/features/sexualviolence/index.html) Apparently the real number is 1/5, or 20%. Still huge. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/23 "2019-08-14T03:09:54Z")
The rural town in the south which was my birthplace has a total population of 209. There are 33 registered sex offenders there. I figure that’s at minimum 25 percent of the men, if you subtract the children and the women. No wonder my mom was so screwed up. I’m glad we moved away when I was a baby. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/24 "2019-08-15T19:06:33Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > The rural town in the south which was my birthplace has a total population of 209. There are 33 registered sex offenders there. I figure that’s at minimum 25 percent of the men, if you subtract the children and the women. No wonder my mom was so screwed up. I’m glad we moved away when I was a baby. Surely that’s an anomaly? Was it like some region where sex offenders were assigned to live after release? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/25 "2019-08-16T00:01:36Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > The rural town in the south which was my birthplace has a total population of 209. There are 33 registered sex offenders there. I figure that’s at minimum 25 percent of the men, if you subtract the children and the women. No wonder my mom was so screwed up. I’m glad we moved away when I was a baby. What specifically were they charged with? (And are they all actually “from” there, or is it a gathering place for misfits from all over?) While as I understand it, “peeing on the sidewalk” is mostly an urban legend, most such crimes were a defence for exhibitionists, that does seem excessively high for actual prosecutions. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/26 "2019-08-16T01:49:34Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Surely that’s an anomaly? Was it like some region where sex offenders were assigned to live after release? Not an anomaly. My mother’s younger brother actually bragged to one of my dad’s brothers about how he had gone after a bunch of his nieces. My dad’s brother then went to my dad and said “Keep your daughters away from Charles (Not his real name).” This tells me that this stuff was so common there that it didn’t even occur to my mom’s brother that he ought to keep that tidbit to himself. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/27 "2019-08-16T01:54:51Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Right - again, we can exclude “harmless” sex crimes from the thread (“harmless” may be a troublesome term but I’m sure most of us agree that if two teenagers are having consensual sex, that’s usually not harmful even if it technically flouts the law). > > We can also exclude things like drunk men peeing on the sidewalk (which isn’t sexual in nature, or not intended to be sexual - it may show lack of common sense, or just being too drunk, but it’s not really what we’re talking about.) In addition to these examples, there is also the issue of crimes considered “sex offenses” that are not necessarily sexually motivated. For example , someone convicted of kidnapping a victim under 17 must register as a sex offender in NY, even if the kidnapping was not sexually motivated. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/28 "2019-08-17T07:09:54Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Someone like Trump for example is a serial sex offender. Dozens of victims and probably has narcissism. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Also this wasn’t an attempt to bring up politics, its just that there may be a connection between men with cluster B personality disorders and men who are serial sex offenders. Trump is someone who falls into both categories. Regardless of the intention, you can’t bring up Trump without bringing politics into GQ. Please make your point without using Trump as an example, at least in this forum. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2019, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583/29 "2019-08-17T09:28:54Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > [Given that 41% of U.S. high school students report having had sexual intercourse](http://recapp.etr.org/recapp/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.StatisticsDetail&PageID=555), though some of those were likely 18 (or had a sexual partner who was 18+), and that that figure was at 54% back in 1991, we can safely say that, if not a majority, a substantial minority of Americans had sex before age 18. When looking at statistics like this, it’s important to remember that a substantial number of these people are not “technically” victims of sexual assault, they’re REALLY victims of sexual assault - child abuse victims (plus, of course, people who were raped at 18). Studies suggest child sex abuse rates [might be about 20%](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1990-19962-001) (which certainly puts “20% of women have ever been raped” into context - of course, some of these sexual assaults would probably not be classed as rape, as such) I can’t see that these studies of teen sexual behaviour ever make a really rigorous attempt at distinguishing “had sex” and “had consensual sex”, but people tend to read them as “had consensual sex”. Not necessarily warranted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/data-on-what-of-people-are-sex-offenders/838583.md?page=1)