NCJ Number
223301
Journal
Journal of Child Sexual Abuse Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: 2008 Pages: 180-196
Date Published
2008
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study investigated attitudes toward juvenile sex offenders and factors influencing those attitudes.
Abstract
Similar to past research findings on attitudes toward sex offenders, attitudes toward juvenile sex offenders were negative. Additionally, respondents reported generally negative views regarding treatment of juvenile sex offenders with most respondents indicating that they were unsure whether treatment would benefit these offenders. The findings of the study suggest that these perceptions of juvenile sex offenders are stable across both respondent genders, as well as between those with and without a victimization history. The study found that despite differences in age, gender, or ethnicity of the perpetrator relative to the victim, respondents had high levels of sympathy for victims, believing that juvenile sexual offending was a serious event that could have negative repercussions for the victims. This was one of the first studies to examine societal attitudes toward juvenile sex offenders and intervention, especially with Hispanic and African-American respondents. The goals for this study were twofold. First, it investigated general attitudes toward juvenile sex offenders and their treatment and what factors influenced those attitudes. Second, it examined the influence of perpetrator characteristics on societal attitudes toward intervention requirements in an effort to better understand how the public responds to sex offenses perpetrated by both adolescents and preadolescents. The study included questionnaire completion by a total of 208 undergraduate students from a large urban university. Tables, references and appendix