Citation

Spoo S, Kaylor LE, Schaaf S, Rosselli MK, Laake A, Johnson C, Jeglic EL. Int. J. Offender Ther. Comp. Criminol. 2018; 62(11): 3385-3407.

Affiliation

5 John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0306624X17740537

PMID

29110538

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that victims of sexual abuse feel more negatively toward sex offenders and advocate for harsher punishments than individuals who have not been victimized. This belief was examined by comparing attitudes toward sex offenders and their treatment, support of registration, notification, and residence restriction policies, as well as general knowledge about sex offenders between a sample of 129 individuals who reported sexual victimization and a sample of 841 individuals who did not report sexual victimization. Overall, we found that victims of sexual abuse reported more positive attitudes toward sex offenders and were more supportive of mandated treatment compared with nonvictims. However, while victims showed decreased support for the community notification laws, there were no differences in support of residence restrictions laws compared with those who reported no victimization. Finally, knowledge about sex offenders predicted attitudes regardless of victim status. These findings are discussed as they pertain to sex offender treatment and legislation.

Language: en

Keywords

attitudes; legislation; sexual offense; victims