A psychometric assessment of the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) Scale: Implications for public policy, trial, and research.

Abstract

Public attitudes toward sex offenders have contributed to the passage of a number of sex offender-specific laws. Following these laws, researchers developed the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale, yet there is debate over the most appropriate factor structure, and no studies to date examine its predictive utility. The current study tested the CATSO factor structure, and explored construct and predictive validity in a community sample. Results included identification of (a) a 2-factor model consisting of capacity to change and social isolation factors; (b) expected construct validity patterns between capacity to change beliefs with political ideology, attribution of blame toward offenders, and sentencing decisions; (c) utility of capacity to change beliefs, but not social isolation beliefs, in predicting sentencing recommendations, placement decisions, and blame attribution. Implications are discussed concerning potential bias in sex offender-related trials and policy, as well as recommendations for application of the CATSO in future research.

Sociodemographic Predictors of Sex Offender Stigma: How Politics Impact Attitudes, Social Distance, and Perceptions of Sex Offender Recidivism

“…In regard to other factors, only five known studies have considered community member level of education as an explanatory variable for sex offender stigma, with four studies (Pickett et al, 2013;Shackley, Weiner, Day, & Willis, 2013;Wevodau et al, 2016;Willis et al, 2013) finding that higher education was related to less stigma toward sex offenders, including cognitive, affective, behavioral, and knowledge components of such stigma. The other study (Mancini, Shields, Mears, & Beaver, 2010) found no relationship between more formal education and endorsing restrictions on where sex offenders can live.…”

“…Public sociodemographic predictors of sex offender stigma differ slightly from general criminal offender stigma on other variables. For example, most research has found no gender differences in many sex offender stigma studies (e.g., Rade et al, 2016;Sahlstrom & Jeglic, 2008;Wevodau et al, 2016), although females have reported keeping further social distance from sex offenders, feeling less positively toward sex offenders, and supporting punitive laws (Koon-Magnin, 2015;Pickett et al, 2013;Willis et al, 2013); males have been found to support some community notification policies and view them as effective (Koon-Magnin, 2015). Some studies have also found females to be more "pro-victim" in mock juror scenarios involving sex abuse cases (e.g., Quas, Bottoms, Haegerich, & Nysse-Carris, 2002).…”

“…In terms of age, younger community members have tended to endorse more negative attitudes toward sex offenders in some studies (Craig, 2005;Kjelsberg & Loos, 2008), although findings related to age have been inconsistent over time (e.g., Brown, 1999;Katz-Schiavone et al, 2008;Wevodau et al, 2016). Finally, consistent with general criminal offender stigma research, political conservatism has also been found to predict stigma toward sex offenders, including more support for sex offender laws and less support for rehabilitation (it was the strongest predictor among variables using national survey data; Pickett et al, 2013).…”

“…According to the DPM of ideology and prejudice proneness (Duckitt & Sibley, 2010), two sociopolitical motivational bases for stigma exist: competitiveness over group dominance (i.e., social dominance orientation) and perceived threats to collective security (i.e., RWA). Hence, it is logical that RWA beliefs offer a driving force to sex offender stigma (Wevodau et al, 2016), which is often propelled by fear and may be exacerbated by beliefs related to traditionalism, harsher criminal punishments, and valuing of authority (Altemeyer, 2006). It is estimated that 20% to 25% of the American public falls into the highest RWA category (Altemeyer, 2006), and many more individuals have moderately high RWA leanings, which makes this group a potentially significant target for antistigma initiatives.…”

“…Experimental research has demonstrated that the sex offender label is a strong heuristic that strengthens public support for various sex offender policies, when compared with the use of more neutral descriptive language (Harris & Socia, 2014). There is also evidence for an association between conservatism and sex offender-specific stigma (Rosselli & Jeglic, 2017;Wevodau, Cramer, Gemberling, & Clark John, 2016), although the research in this area is nascent. Moreover, sex offender stigma has often been measured via composite scales, rather than its individual components (Willis, Malinen, & Johnston, 2013).…”