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Number and Type of Reconvictions

Reconvictions were classified so as to enable distinctions to be drawn, where appropriate, between sexual reconvictions, violent but not sexual reconvictions, and other types of reconviction -- a distinction that has been recommended in the literature (Thornton and Travers 1992). It is recognized of course that some convictions for violent offences may have had a sexual element (Marshall 1994). As an indicator of the seriousness of the reconviction, a distinction was also drawn between those offences which led to a sentence of imprisonment and those which did not. This produced the following classification:

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those reconvicted of a sexual offence (including cases where there had also been a reconviction for violence or another type of offence) -- all of whom were imprisoned for a considerable period, the longest being life imprisonment and the shortest being two years;

those (not included above) reconvicted of a violent offence and sentenced to imprisonment for it;

those (not included above) reconvicted of another type of offence and imprisoned for it;

those (not included above) reconvicted of a minor violent or any other offence, but not imprisoned for it;

those with no reconvictions of any kind.

 

By June 2000 the offenders in the sample had been out of prison for different periods of time: the shortest period was 19 months and the longest was 8 years 1 month. Of the 162 prisoners who had been at liberty for at least four years, 11 (6.7 per cent) had, by June 2000, been reconvicted of a sexual offence. In every instance a sentence of imprisonment had been imposed, on average 38 months after their discharge from prison. The following summarizes the nature of the reoffending that led to their re-imprisonment. In all but a few cases it is apparent from the sentences imposed that the offence was regarded as extremely serious by the court.

Six had originally been convicted of a sexual offence against an adult female; two of the six had a previous conviction for a sexual offence. When reconvicted all but one again victimized an adult:

One (who had originally been imprisoned for six years and six months for raping a friend of his wife) was sentenced, 40 months after being released from prison, to life imprisonment for rape of an adult woman.

Two received hospital orders:

One (who had originally been imprisoned for four years six months for an indecent assault on his adult ex-girlfriend) was reconvicted, 29 months after his release, for the false imprisonment and rape of an adult woman.

The other (who had originally been imprisoned for five years nine months for attempting to rape a female stranger in the street) was reconvicted for an indecent assault on an adult woman, seven years after his initial release, after having appeared in court on more than 20 occasions for non-sexual offences and having already served a four-year sentence for robbery with violence.

Three others received very long sentences:  

One (who had originally been sentenced to nine years six months for raping a pregnant woman to whom he had been introduced shortly after being released from prison on parole from a sentence of three years six months for raping an adult woman) received 16 years' imprisonment, only six months after release, for kidnapping and two cases of rape.

One (sentenced originally to six years six months for raping a woman with whom he had socialized) was reconvicted, 32 months after his release, for false imprisonment and indecent assault on an adult woman, for which he was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.  
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The third (who had originally been imprisoned for seven years for raping a 62- year-old woman in the street, having been previously convicted on two separate occasions of indecent exposure and indecent assault and placed on probation) was sentenced, 38 months after release, to 12 years for false imprisonment and indecent assault on a female under the age of 16. This was the only case where an offender released from a prison sentence for an offence against an adult subsequently victimized a child.  
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Five had originally been sentenced for a sexual offence against a child or children, all outside of their family unit. Three of them had been previously convicted for a sexual offence against a child. On reconviction:

One (who had originally been imprisoned for 11 years for a series of indecent assaults on male and female children as young as eight, having befriended their families, and who had nine previous convictions and five custodial sentences for assaults on both male and female children) received a sentence of nine-and-a-half years, 58 months after release, for indecent assaults on boys. He was the only offender against males who was reconvicted of an offence against a male (for further discussion of this case, see Case B below).

The second (who had originally been sentenced to five years' imprisonment for unlawful sexual intercourse with the eight-year-old daughter of a friend over a period of three years, having previously received a short term of imprisonment on two counts of indecent assault on young boys) was, three years after his release, sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for attempted rape, indecent assault, and unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13.

The third (who had originally been imprisoned for seven years on two counts of indecently assaulting girls, with 16 offences taken into consideration, when in breach of a supervision order for an indecent assault on a 12-year-old girl stranger) was, only seven months after leaving prison, again imprisoned, this time for six years for indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16 (and five years after that was convicted again of a similar offence for which he was imprisoned for nine months).

The fourth (who had originally been sentenced to eight years on three counts of rape and two of indecent assault against girls aged between six and ten whom he had befriended in the neighbourhood) was reconvicted, 63 months after his release, and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 16.

The fifth (who had originally been sentenced to five years on four counts of indecent assault and two of taking indecent photographs of girls aged 10 to 14, whom he involved in prostitution) was again reconvicted, 27 months after release, for possession of indecent photographs. For this he received two years' imprisonment.

 

A further nine (5.6 per cent) had been reconvicted of what was apparently a non-sexual violent offence of sufficient seriousness to have resulted in a custodial sentence (there is no way of knowing from the bare statement of the category of offence whether the offence was sexually motivated). 

Five of them received lengthy custodial sentences. 

The longest sentence was six years for robbery; 

three others received four years (two for  
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threats to kill and one for assault occasioning actual bodily harm) ;

and one received 32 months for robbery. 

The remaining four all got less than a year's imprisonment.

 

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