Implications of sex offender classification on reporting demographic characteristics, health, and criminal careers: results from an Australian jurisdiction.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cross-sectional and retrospective offence data are often used to classify sex offenders in epidemiological and survey research, but little empirical evidence exists regarding the practical implications of this for applied research. This study describes the classification of sex offenders from a cohort of prisoners recruited as part of an Australian inmate health survey and the implications for reporting results.

Methods

Data-linkage was used to join the New South Wales (NSW) Inmate Health Surveys to the states re-offending database to identify men with histories of sexual offending. Sex offenders were classified into men who sexually offended against children only (ChildSOs), against adults only (AdultSOs), and men who sexually offended against both children and a

SUBMITTER: Gullotta M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7189498 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature