Data Study
Victim Age Context in Registered-Offender Convictions (United States)
This report adds descriptive context to publicly available registered-offender records by linking them to a separate convictions/charges dataset that includes victim age (where provided).
It addresses a narrow question: What do available conviction records suggest about the ages of victims represented in registry-linked charges?
This report is intentionally conservative: it reports distributions and cross-tabs only and does not infer consent, coercion, risk, or recidivism.
Data & Linkage
- Charges file: charges.csv (one row per charge), keyed by offenderid
- Offender file: offender.txt (registry listing records), linked by offenderid
- Unit of analysis: charge rows (not unique individuals)
Linkage and Field Availability (charge-level)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Total charge rows | 1,048,580 |
| Charge rows matched to offender record | 1,048,580 (100.0%) |
| Unique offenders in charges | 690,218 |
| Charge rows with victim age | 226,307 (21.6%) |
| Charge rows with offender age at conviction | 140,992 (13.4%) |
All victim-age findings below apply only to the subset of charge rows where victim age is present.
1) Victim Age Distribution (where victim age is provided)
Total charge rows with victim age available: 226,307
| Victim Age Band | Charge Rows | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 0-5 | 37,482 | 16.6% |
| 6-11 | 54,642 | 24.1% |
| 12-14 | 67,451 | 29.8% |
| 15-17 | 44,980 | 19.9% |
| 18-24 | 10,033 | 4.4% |
| 25+ | 11,719 | 5.2% |
Key Finding: Among charges with victim age data, 70.5% involved victims under age 15, with the 12-14 age band representing the largest share (29.8%).
2) Offender Age-at-Conviction × Victim Age (where both ages are provided)
The cross-tab below counts charge rows where both victim age and offender age-at-conviction are present.
| Offender Age Band | 0-5 | 6-11 | 12-14 | 15-17 | 18-24 | 25+ | Row Total | % Victim 15-17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <18 | 208 | 356 | 166 | 65 | 41 | 39 | 875 | 7.4 |
| 18-20 | 704 | 844 | 2,520 | 993 | 334 | 226 | 5,621 | 17.7 |
| 21-24 | 1,388 | 1,121 | 3,505 | 2,579 | 807 | 488 | 9,888 | 26.1 |
| 25-29 | 1,601 | 1,658 | 2,446 | 2,300 | 776 | 806 | 9,587 | 24.0 |
| 30-39 | 2,595 | 3,867 | 3,883 | 2,804 | 663 | 1,276 | 15,088 | 18.6 |
| 50+ | 1,520 | 1,490 | 938 | 636 | 117 | 231 | 4,932 | 12.9 |
Interpretation note:
- This is charge-level (people with multiple charges may appear multiple times).
- "Offender age at conviction" is taken from the dataset's approximate age fields where available.
Key Finding: Within the subset of charge records where both offender age at conviction and victim age are available, a minority of charges involving offenders aged 18–20 include adolescent victims aged 15–17. These near-age patterns are sometimes referenced in public policy debates surrounding close-in-age ("Romeo and Juliet") statutory frameworks; however, the dataset does not provide sufficient detail to assess legal applicability, consent, or statutory exceptions in any individual case.
3) "Close-in-age Adolescent" Signal (approximate; subset-only)
To provide careful context around near-peer age patterns without making claims about consent, we computed a narrow signal on the subset where both ages exist.
Definition (charge-level):
- Offender age at conviction 18–20
- Victim age 15–17
- Approximate age gap 0–3 years
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Charges with both ages available | 54,264 |
| Charges matching close-in-age pattern | 339 |
| Percentage of charges with both ages | 0.62% |
This pattern appears in 339 charge rows, which is 0.62% of charge rows where both ages are available (n = 54,264).
4) Charge Text Mentioning Age/Minor-Related Terms (conservative keyword flag)
As an additional (non-authoritative) lens, we flagged charge text containing common age-related terms (e.g., "statutory", "minor", "juvenile", "under …"). This is a keyword heuristic, not a legal classification.
| Category | Charge Rows | Share |
|---|---|---|
| No age-reference text | 203,336 | 89.8% |
| Age-referenced charge text | 22,971 | 10.2% |
What This Report Does Not Claim
This report does not:
- Determine whether any act was consensual or non-consensual
- Infer relationship context or statutory exceptions
- Estimate recidivism, risk, or future behavior
- Claim that these distributions represent all registry-linked charges (due to missing victim age for many rows)
Limitations & Disclaimers
- Missing victim age: Victim age is present in 21.6% of charge rows. All victim-age results apply only to that subset.
- Charge-level (not person-level): Counts reflect charge rows; individuals with multiple charges can be counted multiple times.
- Approximate ages: Offender age-at-conviction is present in 13.4% of charge rows and may be approximate.
- Keyword flags are imperfect: The "age-referenced charge text" flag is heuristic and may over- or under-include age-related charges.
- No consent inference: Even with victim age present, the dataset does not encode consent, coercion, or relationship details.
Source: Linked analysis of offender.txt and charges.csv, joined by offenderid. Results are descriptive and limited to available fields.