How many US politicians have been convicted of sex crimes against minors since 2000?

1. What the available compilations cover — and what they don’t

Databases and lists in the provided sources take different approaches: Wikipedia maintains category pages and lists of federal convictions that include named politicians (some entries note convictions involving minors, such as Anthony Weiner’s conviction for sending sexually explicit material to a 15‑year‑old) ^{[4] [1]}. GovTrack’s misconduct project aggregates misconduct categories and individual cases but emphasizes ongoing tracking and does not present a single “since‑2000 nationwide total” in the excerpts provided ^[5]. Major news counts (AP, PBS) focus on accusations and allegations—often at the state legislative level—rather than only convictions, and they explicitly catalogue large numbers of accused lawmakers (e.g., AP’s reporting of dozens of state lawmakers accused since 2017 and PBS’s tally of 147 state lawmakers accused of harassment or misconduct since 2017) ^{[2] [3]}. None of the supplied sources produces a definitive, reconciled count of convictions for sex crimes against minors from 2000–present across every jurisdiction (available sources do not mention a single consolidated nationwide number).

2. Federal convictions that are documented in these sources

The provided federal lists include named cases of convictions for sexual offenses with minors — for example, Anthony Weiner’s conviction related to a 15‑year‑old is recorded in a federal‑politician convictions list ^[4]. Wikipedia’s “List of federal political sex scandals” and the “List of American federal politicians convicted of crimes” page document specific federal cases, but they are not presented here as a complete filtered count limited to “sex crimes against minors since 2000” ^{[6] [4]}. Therefore, one can identify and count federal cases from those pages case‑by‑case, but a total must be compiled manually from the entries ^{[6] [4]}.

3. State and local convictions are fragmented across reporting

AP and PBS have cataloged large numbers of state lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct and note several instances that involve minors (for example, AP references a case involving a 16‑year‑old and PBS mentions a state lawmaker charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution) ^{[2] [3]}. However, these projects mainly list allegations or charges and do not consistently separate which resulted in criminal convictions for sex crimes against minors. A comprehensive numeric answer would require cross‑referencing those accusation lists with court records and local reporting beyond the supplied excerpts (available sources do not provide that cross‑referenced, conviction‑only tally).

4. Problems and pitfalls in producing a single number

Three main obstacles prevent a reliable single count from the provided material: (a) differing definitions — “politician” can mean federal, state, local, or judicial actors; (b) varying outcomes — many reports catalog accusations or charges but not convictions, and some convictions relate to sexual misconduct generally rather than specifically to minors ^{[2] [3]}; (c) decentralized records — convictions occur in many states and localities and are compiled unevenly across databases like Wikipedia, GovTrack, AP, and PBS ^{[5] [1]}. The result: any totaled figure derived from these sources risks undercounting, double‑counting, or misclassifying cases unless each entry is individually verified against court records (available sources do not supply that verified nationwide total).

5. How a reader or researcher could get a reliable number

To produce a defensible total you would need to (a) define the scope clearly (which offices, what criminal statutes count, time window), (b) pull named lists from federal compilations (e.g., the federal convictions pages) and state‑level reporting (AP, PBS, local courts), and (c) verify each case’s outcome in court records or reliable local reporting to confirm a conviction and that the victim was a minor. The GovTrack misconduct database and the Wikipedia lists are useful starting indexes but require cross‑checking with primary court records or contemporaneous reputable news reports to convert accusations and charges into confirmed convictions ^{[5] [1] [4]}.

6. Bottom line for your original question

Based on the sources supplied, there is no single, authoritative count provided here of how many U.S. politicians were convicted of sex crimes against minors since 2000; the material documents multiple federal and state cases and extensive allegation tallies but stops short of a reconciled national conviction total (available sources do not mention a consolidated nationwide number) ^{[6] [5] [1] [2] [3] [4]}. If you want, I can use these sources as starting points and attempt a case‑by‑case tally (with citations) limited to a clearly defined scope you choose (federal only, federal+state legislators, or all elected officials).