The influence of implicit theories and offender characteristics on judgements of sexual offenders: a moderated mediation analysis

Tools designed to measure the cognitions of individuals who engage in sexual activities with children over the Internet are either based on knowledge about men who had committed contact sexual offenses or cognitive phenomena not specifically associated to offending behaviors. Thus, there is no validated tool specifically designed to assess the offense-supportive cognitions of men who use the Internet to sexually offend children. This study developed and validated the Cognitions of Internet Sexual Offending (C-ISO) scale. A sample of 241 men with online and contact sexual as well as with nonsexual offenses completed the C-ISO scale and its psychometric properties, and latent structure was analyzed using both Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT), resulting in a final version containing 31 items. The analyses indicate that the C-ISO has excellent psychometric properties and discriminates men with online sexual offenses from those with contact sexual and nonsexual offenses. Implications of the findings for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development and Validation of the Cognitions of Internet Sexual Offending (C-ISO) Scale

Paquette

Cortoni

2019

“…These can be incremental beliefs, whereby behavior is seen as changeable (e.g., through effective treatment), or entity beliefs, where behavior is perceived to be resistant to change ( Dweck et al, 1995 ). Implicit theories have been shown to be related to how people respond to people who have sexually offended ( Harper & Bartels, 2017 ). For example, those with entity-based implicit theories make more punitive judgments about people who have sexually offended compared to those with more incremental implicit theories ( Harper & Bartels, 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Perception of Men Who Have Committed Intrafamilial and Extrafamilial Sexual Offences Against Children

Hartley

Bartels

2022

Self Cite

This study examined whether the attitudinal responses toward child sexual abuse (CSA) differ due to the person’s relationship with the victim (intrafamilial vs. extrafamilial) and/or proximity to the victim (close vs. distant). An online sample of 292 participants completed a measure assessing pre-existing attitudes toward people who commit sexual offenses, before being randomly presented with a vignette describing a CSA case committed by a biological father, biological uncle, babysitter, stranger, or stepfather. Participants then rated the perpetrator’s level of dangerousness and pedophilic interest, their own feelings of disgust, and their punitive judgments. Controlling for pre-existing attitudes, the extrafamilial cases (stranger and babysitter) were perceived to be more dangerous (large effects; ds > .50) and more pedophilic than the stepfather (large effects; ds > .60). Also, participants reported greater levels of disgust toward the stranger than both the babysitter and uncle (medium effects ; ds > .30). The findings demonstrate the need to account for the established heterogeneity of men who commit CSA when studying the public’s attitudinal responses. Methodological limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

“…The representativeness heuristic can seemingly have profound effects not only on generalized attitudes towards individuals with sexual convictions, but also in relation to how people make attributions of risk about this group. For example, research exploring hypothetical judgments about both adult and juvenile perpetrators of child molestation has demonstrated that people hold more positive attitudes towards a juvenile male with sexual convictions than an adult with similar offending behavior (e.g., Sparks & Wormith, 2021 ), ascribe less punitive sentences to juvenile-perpetrated crimes ( Harper & Bartels, 2017 , 2018 ), and may see juveniles as more amenable to long-term behavioral change ( Sahlstrom & Jeglic, 2008 ). It may therefore be the case that attitudes towards individuals with sexual convictions are based upon how closely the given example matches a “sexual offender schema” ( Harper & Bartels, 2018 , p. 277) that becomes semantically and affectively entangled with this offense label ( Harris & Socia, 2016 ).…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Individuals With Sexual Convictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a collection of more recent work has reported how a higher level of educational attainment appears to be associated with more positive attitudes towards individuals with sexual convictions ( Brown, 1999 ; Harper et al, 2017 ; Harper & Hogue, 2015b ; Shackley et al, 2014 ; Willis et al, 2013 ). Thus, it may be that student attitudes towards this group are driven less by specific views about those who commit sexual offenses, and more by attributions about the potential for behavioral change that come from a more liberal social outlook that tends to be associated with increasing education ( Harper & Bartels, 2017 ). However, this specific mechanism of education leading to exaggerated views about the chances of change among individuals with sexual convictions has not been explored.…”

Section: Attitudes Within the Professional Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Attitudes Towards Individuals with Sexual Convictions on Professional and Student Risk Judgments

Harper

Hicks

2022

Self Cite

Attitudes towards individuals with sexual convictions is an area with growing research interest, but the effects of such attitudes on professional judgments is largely unexplored. What is known from the existing literature is that attitudes guide the interpretation of sexual crime related information, which cascade into potential biased or heuristically driven judgments. In this study we recruited samples of both students ( n = 341) and forensic professionals ( n = 186) to explore whether attitudes towards individuals with sexual convictions predicted risk judgments of hypothetical sexual offense scenarios, and whether this relationship is moderated by professional status or perpetrator characteristics. Forensic professionals expressed more positive attitudes overall, but the significant effect of attitudes on risk judgments was consistent between participant groups and was not moderated by perpetrator age or sex. We suggest that relying on attitudes as a basis for risk judgments opens the door to incorrect (and potentially dangerous) decision-making and discuss our data in terms of their potential clinical implications. An open-access preprint of this work is available at https://psyarxiv.com/rjt5h/ .