PEEPERS: CRIMINALITY
As juveniles the peepers were a very delinquent group, having the second largest percentage (29 per cent) with juvenile convictions, even more than the prison group. The great majority of their convictions stemmed from rather serious offenses, judging from the fact that about 80 per cent of them resulted in commitment for six months or more. The percentage of peepers convicted as juvenile sex offenders is also the second largest percentage recorded: 11 per cent.
Their involvement with the law as adults was rapid. By age sixteen nearly one fifth (third in rank-order) had been convicted; subsequently they attain second rank with 46 per cent convicted by age eighteen: 62 per cent by twenty and 79 per cent by twenty-three. By age thirty they are second in the rank-order with 93 per cent of them having been convicted of some offense. On the other hand, their offenses as measured by the proportion of men sentenced to a year or more do not seem to have been particularly grievous, and many of them were nothing more than peeping.
The average (median) peeper was first convicted at 19.5 years of age, tying with the prison group for second in youthfulness at first conviction. In terms of their average age when first convicted for a sex offense the peepers are the youngest by nearly a full year, being 22.5 years old.
Three fifths of their convictions were for sex offenses—owing rather largely to numerous peeping convictions. A moderate proportion of the men (45 per cent) had been convicted solely for sex offenses.
The peepers had the third largest per capita number of convictions, 4.24, and in number of misdemeanors resulting in imprisonment (2.18) they were second only to the exhibitionists. They were again second in number of sex-offense convictions per capita: 2.52, of which 1.61 were for peeping. Their felony convictions were moderate. All in all, we may view the peepers as not given to serious antisocial behavior but very prone to minor criminality.
Their nonsex offenses were not noteworthy except that there was a slight emphasis on crimes vs. property. These account for 42 per cent (third in rank-order) of the peepers’ nonsex offenses, and they were chiefly theft—a crime readily associated with peeping.
Their sex offenses, aside from peeping, were most commonly exhibition (43 per cent) and offenses against willing or acquiescent females (29 per cent). Sex offenses involving force and duress account for about 20 per cent, and one must realize that a minority of peepers are capable of rape. Perhaps a more accurate statement would be that a number of rapists do some preliminary surveillance and are consequently regarded as peepers if apprehended in this activity.
In terms of recidivism there appear to be two varieties of peepers. At one extreme are those who seem to be incidental peepers: the men who peep rarely and only when opportunity strongly beckons; presumably they constitute the one quarter of the peepers with only one conviction. At the other extreme are the repetitive and often compulsive peepers, and it is they who account for the fact that 30 per cent of the peepers had four to six convictions and another 20 per cent had seven or more. These are relatively large figures, especially the latter, which is the second largest recorded. Note that only 9 per cent of the prison group had seven or more convictions.
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