More than a thousand people who committed sexual crimes in a five-year period already had previous convictions.
The Scottish Conservatives have raised questions on whether punishment and rehabilitation requirements imposed on offenders are stringent enough.
It comes as data obtained by The Herald through freedom of information requests revealed 1,686 people convicted of a sexual crime between 2017-18 and 2021-22 had committed previous offences.
The previous convictions relate to any crimes committed within the last 10 years.
In the five year timeframe since 2017, 258 people charged with rape had committed previous offences, the data obtained from the Scottish Government showed.
And there were 347 people convicted of sexual assault who had previous convictions, as did 297 people charged with causing another person to view sexual activity or images.
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The figures also included 251 people who were convicted of possessing indecent images of a child between 2017-18 and 2021-22, despite having previous charges.
A further 163 previous convicts committed offences of communicating indecently, while 91 people threatened to or did disclose indecent images.
Other sex crimes and prostitution offences made up 279 of the reconvictions.
The Scottish Government has said there are strict assessments conducted to assess the risk a person convicted of a sex offence poses to the public.
Sharon Dowey, victims and community safety spokeswoman for the Scottish Tories, said: "These shocking figures sum up how the SNP's relentless weakening of the justice system is repeatedly failing brave victims.
"Those convicted of such vile offences have been free to offend again because all too often they are not being properly punished.
"SNP ministers are completely disconnected from the public who want these criminals to feel the full force of the law.
"It is time that they show some common sense, stop pandering to the needs of criminals and ensure victims get the justice they deserve in these cases."
A breakdown of the figures showed that the number of people with previous convictions who went on to commit sexual offences had increased in almost every category.
In 2017-18, 45 reoffenders committed rape and attempted rape, but the figures had increased to 67 in 2021-22 - a 48.8% increase.
Those in possession of indecent images of children increased by 7.3%, from 55 in 2017-18 to 59 in 2021-22.
In July, the Scottish Government published the general reconviction rates for offenders reconvicted in a year.
The figure sat at 26.9% in 2020-21, a 2.6 percentage point increase from 24.3% in 2019-20.
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For sexual crimes, the reconviction rate decreased in a year from 10.7% to 8.8% in 2020-21 - among the lowest levels in 24 years.
The data also showed that 2.6% of all of those who have reoffended in 2021-22 have had one or two previous convictions for sexual offences.
And in the same time period, 8.7% of those whose most recent crime was a sexual offence had one or two previous convictions of the same nature.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, The Herald revealed that more than 100 moderate to high risk sex offenders were released from prison before completing the Moving Forward to Change (MF2C) programme between March 2021 and June 2024.
The programmes aim to reduce the risk of reoffending among males convicted of sexual crimes.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The proportion of Registered Sex Offenders convicted of further offending is 2.1% and sentencing, including for sexual offending, is a matter for the independent courts.
“Where a person has a conviction for a sexual offence, there is a robust statutory framework to assess, manage and reduce the risk they pose to the public."
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