Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation

The general public has been shown to hold negative attitudes toward sexual offenders (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007; Willis et al., 2010), sex offender treatment (e.g. Olver & Barlow, 2010) and the rehabilitation of sexual offenders (Payne, Tewksbury, & Mustaine, 2010). It ap...

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Main Authors: Kerr, N., Tully, R., Völlm, Birgit
Format: Article
Published: SAGE Publications 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40190/
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author Kerr, N.
Tully, R.
Völlm, Birgit
author_facet Kerr, N.
Tully, R.
Völlm, Birgit
author_sort Kerr, N.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The general public has been shown to hold negative attitudes toward sexual offenders (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007; Willis et al., 2010), sex offender treatment (e.g. Olver & Barlow, 2010) and the rehabilitation of sexual offenders (Payne, Tewksbury, & Mustaine, 2010). It appears pertinent to the success of sex offender management strategies that utilise volunteers that selected volunteers do not share these attitudes. Here, volunteers for Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA), a community-based initiative supporting the reintegration of sex offenders, completed three validated psychometric measures assessing attitudes toward sex offenders in general and toward their treatment and rehabilitation. Responses were compared to a UK general public sample. The results showed that volunteers held more positive attitudes toward sex offenders, sex offender treatment and sex offender rehabilitation than the UK general public sample. The significance of these findings is discussed alongside directions for future research.
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spelling nottingham-401902020-05-04T18:35:25Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40190/ Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation Kerr, N. Tully, R. Völlm, Birgit The general public has been shown to hold negative attitudes toward sexual offenders (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007; Willis et al., 2010), sex offender treatment (e.g. Olver & Barlow, 2010) and the rehabilitation of sexual offenders (Payne, Tewksbury, & Mustaine, 2010). It appears pertinent to the success of sex offender management strategies that utilise volunteers that selected volunteers do not share these attitudes. Here, volunteers for Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA), a community-based initiative supporting the reintegration of sex offenders, completed three validated psychometric measures assessing attitudes toward sex offenders in general and toward their treatment and rehabilitation. Responses were compared to a UK general public sample. The results showed that volunteers held more positive attitudes toward sex offenders, sex offender treatment and sex offender rehabilitation than the UK general public sample. The significance of these findings is discussed alongside directions for future research. SAGE Publications 2017-02-09 Article PeerReviewed Kerr, N., Tully, R. and Völlm, Birgit (2017) Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation. Sexual Abuse . ISSN 1573-286X CoSA Sexual Offending Attitudes Treatment Rehabilitation Volunteering http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1079063217691964 doi:10.1177/1079063217691964 doi:10.1177/1079063217691964
spellingShingle CoSA
Sexual Offending
Attitudes
Treatment
Rehabilitation
Volunteering
Kerr, N.
Tully, R.
Völlm, Birgit
Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation
title Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation
title_full Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation
title_fullStr Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation
title_full_unstemmed Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation
title_short Volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation
title_sort volunteering with sex offenders: the attitudes of volunteers toward sex offenders, their treatment and rehabilitation
topic CoSA
Sexual Offending
Attitudes
Treatment
Rehabilitation
Volunteering
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40190/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40190/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40190/