Attitudes towards Sex Offenders and the Role of Empathy, Locus of Control and Training: A Comparison between a Probationer Police and General Public Sample

Abstract

The current study aimed to explore attitudes towards sex offenders in a probationer police sample and a general sample, with a focus on the role of empathy and locus of control. There was a subsidiary aim of assessing the impact of education awareness training on the attitudes held by police officers. Ninety-nine members of the general population (49 men and 50 women) and 75 probationer police officers (50 men and 25 women) completed the Attitudes Towards Sex Offenders scale (ATS), a measure of cognitive and emotional empathy (IRI: Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and the Locus of Control of Behaviour scale (LOC). Results indicated that police officers were more likely than the general population to report positive attitudes towards sex offenders. This supported the prediction that there would be a difference between samples. Locus of control did not feature as a strong associating factor with attitudes, failing to associate with overall attitudes towards sex offenders. Attitudes were found to associate with levels of empathy but the nature of the relationship differed in accordance with the specific component of empathy and the population (i.e. police or general sample). Women overall were reported to be more empathic than men but no interaction between gender and status was found. Police officers were found, however, to present with lower overall empathy levels than the general population but this was not consistent across all types of empathy, with increased perspective-taking abilities compared with those of the general sample being reported. Interestingly, following awareness training on sex offenders, police officers reported more negative attitudes towards sex offenders. The study concludes by discussing the implication of these findings for practice.