scholarly journals Perceptions around adult and child sex offenders and their rehabilitation as a function of education in forensic psychology independent of traditionalism and perpetrator sex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Rothwell ◽  
Dean Fido ◽  
Nadja Heym
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Forensic Psychology ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Psychology Student ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Negative Perceptions

Literature pertaining to individuals with sexual convictions typically reports punitive views about their crimes, sentences, and effectiveness of rehabilitation. However, such perceptions may be a function of offense demographics, such as victim age and perpetrator sex, and perceiver characteristics, such as their traditionalism or forensic awareness/education. Participants (N=101; 60% forensic psychology student; 40% general public) read online vignettes related to sexual offences (manipulating perpetrator sex and victim age), and completed measures of perceptions of sex offenders, perceived rehabilitation efficacy and traditionalism. Members of the general population (without forensic education background) reported harsher views towards individuals with sexual convictions and their rehabilitation, relative to students of forensic psychology, independent of their greater traditionalism. There was no main effect of or interaction with perpetrator sex. Whilst participants endorsed more negative perceptions towards sex offenders of child than adult victims, this did not extent to differences in perceptions regarding their rehabilitation. Findings reported here indicate a need for greater understanding as to the factors that might moderate perceptions towards individuals with sexual convictions, and have implications for the promotion of sex offender rehabilitation programmes. Understanding the root of such public attitudes is a key step for creating and improving associated policies.

The policing of sexual activity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Sex Tourism ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
Sex Offender Registry ◽  
Police Attitudes ◽  
Police Investigations ◽  
Evidence Gathering

This essay starts by discussing the initial police involvement with newly reported sexual offences, covering local policing, problems with reporting to the police, police attitudes to complainants, and the role of sexual assault referral centres. The next section reviews police investigations of sexual offences, evidence gathering, and the role of forensic science and preparation for prosecution decisions. The author then explores the new role given to the police in their public protection role. This requires the police to take on supervisory activities, including administering the sex offender registry, applying for preventive civil orders, and disseminating information on sex offenders. The essay concludes by looking at the national and international policing of sexual offenders, including the policing of ‘sex tourism’.

Children and Young People on the UK Sex Offender Register

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Young People ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Uk

AbstractA number of countries now use sex offender registers as a policy to improve levels of public protection by ensuring that law enforcement agencies are better informed on the whereabouts of sex offenders in their communities. These policies are designed in part to improve child protection. The paradox is that some people on the register are themselves children and young people who have committed sexual offences. This article examines the development of the UK sex offender register and the registration of children and young people aged 10-17. It looks at attempts to provide alternative forms of registration and implications for the future in terms of children's rights.

scholarly journals Volunteering With Sex Offenders: The Attitudes of Volunteers Toward Sex Offenders, Their Treatment, and Rehabilitation

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 659-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Kerr ◽  
Ruth J. Tully ◽  
Birgit Völlm
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Offenders ◽  
General Public ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Offender Treatment ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Sex Offender Treatment ◽  
Attitudes Toward Sex

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.

Paternalism and the Good Lives Model of Sex Offender Rehabilitation

Sexual Abuse ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Glaser
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Rehabilitation Process ◽  
Good Lives Model ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
Good Lives

The lives of sex offenders are often confused and disorganized. Modern sex offender rehabilitation approaches such as the good lives model emphasize holistic aims such as helping offenders to live more satisfying and fulfilling lives, rather than merely teaching them to avoid risk. The appeal of the model lies in its justification by paternalism: Whatever harms are inflicted on offenders during the rehabilitation process are ultimately for their own good. But paternalism has its limitations, which include potential infringements on offenders’ autonomy and human rights, the risk of therapists imposing their own values and attitudes, and false claims that harmful interventions are justified by their benefit for offenders. Furthermore, some recent empirical studies suggest that offenders themselves do not necessarily prefer personal well-being goals over risk management techniques and that some offenders find it distressingly easy to incorporate “good lives” principles into an ongoing antisocial lifestyle. These limitations need to be taken into account when applying a good lives approach.

scholarly journals Online child sexual exploitation material: A comparison from police data on men charged with child sexual exploitation material exclusively and men charged with contact child sexual abuse exclusively

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Nicol ◽  
Danielle A. Harris ◽  
Mark R. Kebbell ◽  
James Ogilvie
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Child Sexual Abuse ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Community Supervision ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
Treatment Protocols ◽  
Child Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Police Data

We do not know whether men who access Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) are contact child-sex offenders using technology - or a new and different type of child sex offender. This study compares men who were charged with Contact Child Sexual Abuse (CCSA) (n = 95) exclusively, and men who were charged with offences involving online CSEM (n = 99) exclusively. This is the first study of its kind in Australia, the first to divide participants into mutually exclusive offending type groups and to do this using police data. Logistic regression results indicated that CSEM offenders were significantly more likely to be older, more likely to be employed, have fewer criminal charges and supervision violations compared to CCSA offenders. The findings further highlighted the heterogeneity of those charged with child sexual offences based on offence typology. The identification of demographic, lifestyle and interpersonal characteristic differences between online CSEM and CCSA offenders’ questions the use of uniform approaches to community supervision and treatment protocols. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of an increased volume of people charged with CSEM offences.

What Works in Israeli Prison-Based Sex Offender Rehabilitation Programs: Program Participants’ Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 2601-2623
Author(s):  
Brenda Geiger ◽  
Michael Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Group Therapy ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Appreciative Inquiry ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Therapy Group ◽  
Rehabilitation Program ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Open Communication ◽  
Therapeutic Goals ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs

This study invited 10 of the 22 sex offenders enrolled in a prison-based rehabilitation program in one of the prisons in Israel to engage in the two first of the 4-D ( Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver) stages of the Appreciative Inquiry . Consistent with the responsivity principle, and the IA tenets, program participants were interviewed to Discover components to which they were responsive and Dream/envision additional ones that would increase engagement and progress. Content analysis of the interviews indicated that despite the initial decision to enrol based on external incentives, participants eventually engaged in group therapy and expressed the desire to understand and regulate their sexual behaviour. While the the modules of Cognitive Behabioral Group Therapy (CBT) were viewed as assets, the lack of sufficient recruitment criteria, the large therapy group size, and its open-ended structure were mentioned as impediments reaching therapeutic goals. Social workers/therapists were criticized for their request that they be informers, and for their accusative therapeutic style whenever sexual issues were broached. Recommendations derived from the offenders’ narrative were to increase staff professionalism to create a therapeutic alliance that promotes trust and open communication. Criminal justice practitioners may then take up the challenge of the never-ending process of Appreciative Inquiry to Design and Deliver program components envisioned by the participants to increase participants’ responsivity to the program and thus its effectiveness.

scholarly journals Dehumanisation and attitudes toward the punishment and rehabilitation of child sex offenders: A New Zealand study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Charis Elizabeth Lister Dixson
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
University Students ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
The Public

<p>Child sex offenders are a group often regarded as dangerous and high risk, leading to increased support for offender registration policies which monitor the whereabouts of offenders after release. These policies have the intended aim of increasing public safety, however a wide body of research supports the idea that negative attitudes towards offenders underlie the creation of these policies more than empirical evidence of their success. Dehumanisation is a psychological process that deprives others of characteristics unique to both human beings and human nature, which has been established to predict increased support for punishment and decreased support for rehabilitation for child sex offenders. The current study aimed to examine the role of dehumanisation in support for punishment and rehabilitation of child sex offenders throughout two studies: first via the undertaking of an online survey using a sample of 228 university students and members of the public, second throughout three focus groups containing a total of 22 university students and members of the public. Dehumanising attitudes in relation to preference between the RNR and GLM models, two key frameworks for child sex offender rehabilitation, were also examined for the first time in the current study. Findings indicated that: 1) both moral outrage and dehumanisation predicted support for harsher forms of punishment and withdrawn support for rehabilitation, 2) victim age did not impact dehumanisation scores, 3) type of offense impacted both dehumanisation and support for post-release monitoring and 4) dehumanisation did not predict RNR over GLM preference. Limitations of the current study and implications for policy and practice, future research regarding uniquely human characteristics, victim age and RNR/GLM preference are discussed.</p>

scholarly journals Dehumanisation and attitudes toward the punishment and rehabilitation of child sex offenders: A New Zealand study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Charis Elizabeth Lister Dixson
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
University Students ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Offender Rehabilitation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
The Public

<p>Child sex offenders are a group often regarded as dangerous and high risk, leading to increased support for offender registration policies which monitor the whereabouts of offenders after release. These policies have the intended aim of increasing public safety, however a wide body of research supports the idea that negative attitudes towards offenders underlie the creation of these policies more than empirical evidence of their success. Dehumanisation is a psychological process that deprives others of characteristics unique to both human beings and human nature, which has been established to predict increased support for punishment and decreased support for rehabilitation for child sex offenders. The current study aimed to examine the role of dehumanisation in support for punishment and rehabilitation of child sex offenders throughout two studies: first via the undertaking of an online survey using a sample of 228 university students and members of the public, second throughout three focus groups containing a total of 22 university students and members of the public. Dehumanising attitudes in relation to preference between the RNR and GLM models, two key frameworks for child sex offender rehabilitation, were also examined for the first time in the current study. Findings indicated that: 1) both moral outrage and dehumanisation predicted support for harsher forms of punishment and withdrawn support for rehabilitation, 2) victim age did not impact dehumanisation scores, 3) type of offense impacted both dehumanisation and support for post-release monitoring and 4) dehumanisation did not predict RNR over GLM preference. Limitations of the current study and implications for policy and practice, future research regarding uniquely human characteristics, victim age and RNR/GLM preference are discussed.</p>

Learning to Pass: Sex Offenders' Strategies for Establishing a Viable Identity in the Prison General Population

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 614-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Schwaebe
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
General Population ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Treatment Program ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Offender Treatment ◽  
Sex Offender Treatment ◽  
Prison Life ◽  
Treatment Context

This article endeavors to illustrate the realities of prison life for sex offenders and the means by which they attempt to establish viable identities and acquire a survivable niche in the prison general population, particularly when established identities and protective niches are put at risk by entry into a sex offender treatment program. Qualitative data was collected by repeatedly interviewing a cohort of sex offenders for 6 months as they completed a basic sex offender treatment program. The findings indicate a need to include consideration of treatment context in understanding the limits of treatment gain in prison-based programs.

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