Measuring public perceptions of sex offenders: reimagining the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale

Harper, Craig A.; Hogue, Todd

doi:10.1080/1068316x.2014.989170

Cited by 44 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…Owing to the large correlation between ATS-21 and PSO scores that have been highlighted in previous research (Harper & Hogue, 2015b), the ATS-21 was included in this analysis as a covariate in order to control for the influence of generalised attitudes towards sexual offenders on PSO outcome judgements (p < .001). A significant MANCOVA effect was obtained (Wilk's λ = .961; F(9, 1530) = 2.26, p = .008, h 2 p = 0.01).…”

Section: Pso Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Perceptions of Sex Offenders Scale (PSO; Harper & Hogue, 2015b) is a 20-item scale (six reverse-scored) adapted from the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders Scale (CATSO; Church, Wakeman, Miller, Clements, & Sun, 2008) following criticisms about the CATSO's reliability and validity. It is comprised of three factors that examine respondents' perceptions about 'Sentencing and Management', 'Stereotype Endorsement', and the 'Risk Perception' in relation to sexual offenders.…”

Section: Perceptions Of Sex Offenders Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

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Press coverage as a heuristic guide for social decision-making about sexual offenders

Harper

Hogue

2016

Psychology, Crime & Law

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We present two studies examining the role of the British press in\ud promoting heuristic-based decision-making about sexual crime. In\ud Study 1, 1014 press articles were used in order to examine the\ud role of the availability heuristic. That is, we used the recent highprofile\ud Jimmy Savile sexual offending scandal to investigate how\ud this case impacted upon press reporting of sexual crime. We\ud found a 295% increase in the frequency of sexual crime coverage\ud after this case, in addition to a 22:1 over-representation of sexual\ud crime prevalence. Linguistically, tabloid stories about sexual crime\ud did not significantly differ in the 12 months following the Jimmy\ud Savile scandal, though broadsheets were less negative in their\ud coverage after the scandal broke. Tabloid headline descriptors of\ud sexual offenders were also substantially more offensive than those\ud used by broadsheets. In Study 2, tabloid readership was\ud associated with more negative attitudes and preferences for\ud harsher punishments for sexual offenders, which we propose may\ud be attributable to the affect heuristic. We discuss our findings\ud within the context of dual-process cognition, and argue that the\ud national press promote heuristic-based thinking about the issue of\ud sexual offending. Future research avenues, and potential\ud implications for press engagement, are also identified

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Section: Pso Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Perceptions Of Sex Offenders Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Press coverage as a heuristic guide for social decision-making about sexual offenders

Harper

Hogue

2016

Psychology, Crime & Law

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“…Dependent variables were average change indices for the MDS-SO, SPS, PSO, and absorption scales. Owing to high correlation coefficients between the ATS-21 and (a) the MDS-SO and SPS scales (Table 2), and (b) the PSO scale (Harper & Hogue, 2015b), it was important to include baseline attitudes towards sexual offenders (i.e., ATS-21 scores) as a covariate in this analysis 1 . As such, we were able to account for the effect of the experimental manipulations independent of these baseline attitudes.…”

Section: Effect Of Presentation Modalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Perceptions of Sex Offenders Scale (PSO; Harper & Hogue, 2015b) is a 20-item scale that is comprised of three factors. These factors examine respondents' perceptions about sentencing and management policies (e.g., "Convicted sex offenders should never be released from prison"), stereotype-supportive beliefs about sexual offenders (e.g., "Most sex offenders are unmarried men"), and the risks posed by people convicted of sexual crimes (e.g., "Only a few sex offenders are dangerous"; reverse-scored).…”

Section: Narratives and Pedophilia Judgments 14mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing Stigma and Punitive Attitudes Toward Pedophiles Through Narrative Humanization

2016

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Stigmatization and societal punitiveness about pedophilia have a range of potential consequences, such as the social isolation of people with sexual interest in children, and the formation of policies that are not consistent with empirical research findings. Previous research has shown that people with pedophilic sexual interests use societal thinking to self-stigmatize, which in turn may actually serve to increase their risk of committing a sexual offense. In this study, we compared two attitudinal interventions (first-person narrative vs. expert opinion) using a student sample (N = 100). It was hypothesized that both interventions would lead to reductions in stigmatization and punitive attitudes about pedophiles on an explicit (self-report) level but that only the narrative intervention would lead to reductions of these constructs at the implicit level. Our findings supported both hypotheses. We further discuss the role of narrative humanization in this area and offer suggestions for further research based upon the theoretical and methodological implications of the findings.

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“…In addition, participants were asked to provide a qualitative account as to why they felt the offense depicted in the vignette took place. (PSO;Harper & Hogue, 2015b). The PSO is a 20-item self-report measure of sentencing, stereotype-consistent, and risk-based judgments about sexual offenders, with excellent levels of internal consistency (Harper & Hogue, 2015a).…”

Section: Attitudes To Sexual Offenders Scale (Ats-21; Anonymous In Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implicit Theories and Offender Representativeness in Judgments About Sexual Crime

Harper

Bartels

2016

Sex Abuse

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Implicit theories structure the way people understand and respond to various human actions.Typically, people believe attributes are either fixed (entitists) or malleable (incrementalists).The present study aimed to examine: (a) whether attitudes towards sexual offenders differ depending upon one's implicit theory about human nature and sexual offenders, and (b) whether implicit theories are associated with judgments made about different types of child abuser. A sample of 252 community participants was recruited. Their attitudes, implicit theories, and political orientation were assessed via self-report. One of three vignettes describing an incidence of child sexual abuse was then presented. The cases were identical except the perpetrator was either an adult male, an adult female, or a male juvenile. Participants then made judgments about the offender's deserved sentence and moral character. Entitists (across both domains) held more negative attitudes than incrementalists, although the magnitude of the difference was greatest when examining implicit theories about sexual offenders. Compared to those with an incremental theory of sexual offenders, entity theorists judged sexual offending to be more: (a) indicative of the perpetrator's moral character, and (b) deserving of punishment. However, scores were greater towards the adult male relative to the adult female and juvenile. The findings suggest that implicit theories about sexual offenders are domain-specific. They also indicate that judgments made by those with an entity theory (about sexual offenders) are affected by whether a case is representative of a stereotypical sexual offender. Implications of the findings are discussed, along with limitations and future research.Keywords: implicit theories; representativeness heuristic; sexual offenders; public attitudes; schema 3 Implicit theories and offender representativeness in judgments about sexual crimeMuch research has demonstrated that people generally hold more negative attitudes towards sexual offenders than perpetrators of other crime types (e.g., Rogers & Ferguson, 2011;Willis, Levenson, & Ward, 2010). Given the nature and damaging consequences of sexual crime, it is not surprising that people within society hold such attitudes. Sexual offenders and the type of offenses they commit elicit negative affective reactions, such as fear, disgust, and moral outrage (Kernsmith, Craun, & Foster, 2009;Vess, 2009;Willis et al., 2010), which can provide the basis for one's negative attitude towards sexual offenders; a phenomenon known as 'affect-as-information' (Clore, Gasper, & Garvin, 2001).People have a striking ability to effortlessly form attitudes on the basis of "media exposure, and other forms of socially-supplied information" (Crano, Cooper, & Forgas, 2010, p.3). Therefore, media coverage about sexual offenders is likely to play a major role in shaping the public's attitude towards sexual offenders (Craun & Theriot, 2009;Galeste, Fradella, & Vogel, 2012;Harper & Hogue, 2015a;Malinen, Willis, & ...

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Measuring public perceptions of sex offenders: reimagining the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale

Cited by 44 publications

References 30 publications

Press coverage as a heuristic guide for social decision-making about sexual offenders

Press coverage as a heuristic guide for social decision-making about sexual offenders

Reducing Stigma and Punitive Attitudes Toward Pedophiles Through Narrative Humanization

Implicit Theories and Offender Representativeness in Judgments About Sexual Crime

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