Sex offender registries: exploring the attitudes and knowledge of political decision-makers
Sex offender registries: exploring the attitudes and knowledge of political decision-makers
Author
Jung, Sandy
Allison, Meredith
Toop, Carissa
Martin, Erin
Faculty Advisor
Date
2020
Keywords
sex offender registry , attitudes , politicians , sexual offenders , community safety , attitudes , opinions
Abstract (summary)
Sex offender registries (SORs) were established due to policies and practices intended
to protect the public from individuals who commit sexually violent acts, and yet the
empirical literature does not show that public SORs reduce or prevent sexual crimes.
Given that politicians prominently influence SOR policies, the current study explores the
views of SORs by 26 political decision-makers from Canada and the U.S. Participants
completed a survey on their opinions regarding SORs and their knowledge of SOR
eligibility. Attitudes and political perspectives were assessed to examine their
association with SOR opinions. Almost two thirds of those surveyed believed SORs
should be publicly available and a third believed SORs helped to protect the public.
These beliefs were associated with those with conservative-leaning political views.
These findings help us to explore the perspectives of political decision-makers and gain
insight into attitudinal factors that may play a role in influencing opinions regarding
SORs.
Publication Information
Jung, S., Allison, M., Toop, C., & Martin, E. (2020). Sex offender registries: exploring the attitudes and knowledge of political decision-makers. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 27(3), 478–492.
DOI
Notes
Item Type
Language
English
Rights
All Rights Reserved