What percent of US prison population are convicted of sex crimes?

Answer 1

As the generic "sex crimes" is not statistically tracked by the FBI (the organization charged with keeping the annual crime statistics in the US and publishing these in four annual publications (Crime in the United States, National Incident-Based Reporting System, Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted, and Hate Crime Statistics) in any comprehensive way (participation in the FBI gathering of data is strictly voluntary, and not all states cooperate with The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, it is just not possible to give a clear number. We may be able to give a general idea though.

The state of Michigan has one of the highest per capita incarceration rates of the US. The incarceration rate of sex offenders in Michigan prisons has been said to hover around 20%. To put that into some sort of real number, there were 50,862 inmates at end of year 2011, so 20% would equal 10,173 (rounded up). In reality there were 2,928 people introduced to the MDOC in 2011 (the newest data available) who were convicted of crimes with a sexual component for which they would be required to register as a sex offender, around 5.7%. Of that 2,928 who where housed in the MDOC in 2011, 259 remained incarcerated at the end of the year, or about .5% of the entire population of the MDOC.

Wow! Having just crunched the numbers myself, I am horrified at the rampant epidemic of sex crimes being committed in the state of Michigan. To put it into a larger perspective:

The conviction rates of sex crimes in the state of Michigan is in the high 90's percent (varies a little by county). Those who are accused are most often convicted. Round the number of accused up to 3,000 to take into account the very few acquittals. So, with a population of 9,883,360, the rate of sexual offenses per capita in Michigan is about .003% -- a statistical hiccup. With a recidivism rate around 3.5%, an estimate of 103 (rounded up) of those sent to prison in 2011 for "sex crimes" may reoffend, or less than 10% of the inmate population of a single MDOC facility.