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| Reporting on former sex offenders. |
It certainly is not news that the news media can’t get their facts straight about former sex offenders.
So the kerfuffle in Colorado between “9News ‘Colorado’s News Leader’ ” and the Colorado Department of Corrections over the station’s factual errors is not a surprise.
What MUST be pointed out however, is this fact that emerges from the push-and-pull over what’s right and wrong about former sex offenders:
For the 854 (Colorado) sex offenders released in 2010, eight returned to prison within three years for a new sex crime. That makes the recidivism rate just less than 1 percent.
As was first and thoroughly reported by Nebraskans Unafraid last year, a University of Nebraska-Omaha study found a similarly low rate of recidivism among Nebraska sex offenders.
Yet the news media continue to premise their stories upon the utterly wrong and discredited idea that former sex offenders are all high reoffense risks. Proving again that most reporters won’t let the facts get in the way of what they think is a good story.