Abstract
The general public has been shown to hold negative attitudes toward sexual offenders, sex offender treatment, and the rehabilitation of sexual offenders. It appears pertinent to the success of sex offender management strategies that utilise volunteers that selected volunteers do not share these attitudes. Here, volunteers for Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA), a community-based initiative supporting the reintegration of sex offenders, completed three validated psychometric measures assessing attitudes toward sex offenders in general and toward their treatment and rehabilitation. Responses were compared with a U.K. general public sample. The results showed that volunteers held more positive attitudes toward sex offenders, sex offender treatment, and sex offender rehabilitation than the U.K. general public sample. The significance of these findings is discussed alongside directions for future research.
Highlights
There is consensus in the literature that members of the general public hold inaccurate perceptions and openly negative attitudes toward sex offenders (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007; Willis et al, 2010), sex offender treatment (e.g. Olver & Barlow, 2010) and sex offender rehabilitation (Payne, Tewksbury, & Mustaine, 2010)
The Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders-R (CATSO-R) scale was significantly correlated with both the Attitudes Toward Sex Offender Treatment (ATTSO) and the Public Attitudes Toward Sex Offender Rehabilitation (PATSOR) Rehabilitation subscale which were in turn significantly correlated
Severity and Dangerousness and Mandatory Treatment were not correlated with any of the subscales indicating that sexual offenders were perceived as dangerous regardless of their capacity to change whilst compulsory treatment was favoured independent of views on treatment efficacy
Summary
There is consensus in the literature that members of the general public hold inaccurate perceptions and openly negative attitudes toward sex offenders (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007; Willis et al, 2010), sex offender treatment (e.g. Olver & Barlow, 2010) and sex offender rehabilitation (Payne, Tewksbury, & Mustaine, 2010). Olver & Barlow, 2010) and sex offender rehabilitation (Payne, Tewksbury, & Mustaine, 2010). They have a tendency to grossly overestimate recidivism rates (Brown, Deakin, & Spencer, 2008; Levenson et al, 2007; Olver & Barlow, 2010) and to view sentences as not being sufficiently severe (Olver & Barlow, 2010). In research by Payne et al (2010) few demographic, community-level or victimisation factors were identified as being predictive of attitudes toward rehabilitating sex offenders. The authors contended that punitive attitudes toward sex offenders are not driven by a singular influence and highlighted the stereotype of sex offenders as being unreformable as potentially being the main motivator underlying hostility toward sex offenders (Pickett, Mancini, & Mears, 2013)
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