NCJ Number
231510
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 25 Issue: 6 Dated: August 2010 Pages: 545-556
Date Published
August 2010
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article examines the literature on community attitudes towards sex offenders.
Abstract
In an ideal world, there would be a seamless relationship between interventions that focus on risk factors causally associated with sexual reoffending and the subsequent release of, and ongoing support for, offenders into the community. However, emotionally fueled and uninformed public responses to news of released sex offenders, and the legislation such responses have inspired, severely hinder this process. Our aims in this paper are to review findings of research on community attitudes about sex offenders within a desistance framework. More specifically, we provide a synthesis of the current research literature on attitudes towards sex offenders. Second, we consider in more detail those studies that include community member samples. Third, we review interventions aimed at promoting attitude change amongst professionals working with sex offenders and finally formulate some recommendations for promoting positive attitude change amongst the general public. Table and references (Published Abstract)