IP 13, SECTION 2

By:  Steve Doell, President, Crime Victims United

The first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens from harm. When, according to the National Institute for Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one in six American women will be a victim of a sexual assault in their lifetime,[1]  government is clearly not doing enough to protect against the harm of sexual violence.  According to the American Journal of Public Health every year, an estimated 300,000 women are raped and 3.7 million are confronted with unwanted sexual activity.[2]  Approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children.[3]  Oregon in particular can do more to protect Oregonians from sexual predators.  In 2008 there were 1,156 reported rapes in Oregon.  That number is significantly higher than states with comparable populations such as Utah, Iowa, and Connecticut.

The American Medical Association has called sexual assault “the silent violent epidemic.”  It is a silent epidemic because sexual assault is the most underreported crime in America. According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, over 60 percent of all rapes and sexual assaults go unreported.[4]  National Crime Victimization Surveys conducted by the Department of Justice in 1994, 1995, and 1998 indicated that only 32 percent of sexual assaults against persons 12 or older were reported to law enforcement.  A three-year longitudinal study of 4,008 adult women found that 84 percent of respondents who identified themselves as a victim of rape did not report the crime to authorities.[5]  Research based upon information generated through polygraph examinations of convicted sex offenders supports the hypothesis that most sexual assaults are not detected nor reported.  A study of imprisoned sex offenders who were believed to have less than two victims revealed that the offenders actually had an average of 110 victims and 318 offenses.[6]  Another polygraph study found a sample of imprisoned sex offenders to have extensive criminal histories, committing sex crimes for an average of 16 years before being caught.[7]

The harm suffered by survivors of sexual assault is potentially catastrophic.  The adverse effects include depression,[8] post-traumatic stress disorder,[9] anxiety,[10] and other types of long-term psychological trauma,[11 ] especially for victims who have been sexually abused by a parent.[12]  Individuals who have been sexually abused as a child are at an increased risk for re-victimization in adulthood.[13]  According to the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, sexual, physical, and psychological violence causes as much illness and death among women aged 15 to 44 as cancer, while childhood sexual abuse is more common than teen pregnancy, pediatric cancer, or childhood obesity.[14]

The cost of sexual violence is immense. The annual cost of rape to adult victims, alone, is approximately $127 billion.[15]  Personal costs to victims include out of pocket expenses, such as medical care and property damage; reduced productivity at work, home, and/or school; and non-monetary losses, such as fear, pain, and loss of quality of life. Taking into account short-term medical care, mental health services, lost productivity, and pain and suffering, the cost per adult sexual assault is estimated to be $87,000 per episode of sexual violence.[16]  Startling as this figure may be, it does not include any costs associated with childhood sexual abuse or costs incurred by businesses, the criminal justice system, or society at large. Societal costs include business' losses, through employee absenteeism and third-party liability; provision of services to victims and their significant others; criminal justice responses, such as investigations, trials, incarceration, and offender-registration; and non-monetary losses, such as fear of victimization and corresponding loss of quality of life.[17]

Initiative Petition 13 addresses the crisis of sexual assault by removing from society those persons most likely to commit sexual assault -  repeat sex offenders.  IP 13 provides that “Any person who is convicted of a major sex crime who has one (or more) previous convictions for a major sex crime shall be imprisoned for a mandatory minimum of 25 years.”   "Major sex crime" is defined as rape in the first degree, sodomy in the first degree, unlawful sexual penetration in the first degree, or using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.[18]

There have been several studies that have attempted to measure the rate of recidivism among sex offenders.  Unfortunately, the findings of those studies vary widely from a low of just over 5% to a high of nearly 90%.  Despite the disparate findings, it is axiomatic that the best predictor of future behavior is past conduct.  The same is true for sexual assault.  There is universal agreement that convicted sexual offenders are much more likely to commit a sexual assault as compared to members of the general public who have not been convicted of a sex crime.  A 2003 Bureau of Justice Statistics study concluded that 24% of the inmates in state prison are in for rape, and 19% of those serving time for sexual assault were on probation or parole for a sex crime, at the time they committed the offense for which they were incarcerated.[19]

Oregonians deserve greater protection from repeat sexual offenders.  IP 13 does exactly that by removing the most dangerous sexual offenders from society for as long as possible.  IP 13 is specifically designed to target those offenders who pose the greatest risk to society.  Oregonians deserve the protections guaranteed by the mandatory sentences for repeat sexual offenders provided by IP 13.