Sexual offending hierarchies, personality attributions, and the clinical implications
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-07-2016-0031 |
| Pages | 190-197 |
| Date | 14 August 2017 |
| Published date | 14 August 2017 |
| Author | Laura Elizabeth Challinor,Simon Duff |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Forensic practice,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Law enforcement/correctional,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice |
Sexual offending hierarchies, personality
attributions, and the clinical implications
Laura Elizabeth Challinor and Simon Duff
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine sexual offending hierarchies constructed by the general
public and forensic staff based on personal attitudes and perceived severity of offence. In addition, six sexual
offence perpetrators are differentiated using the Five Factor Model of personality.
Design/methodology/approach –Vignettes represented six sexual offence perpetrators. Participants built
a hierarchy based on perceived severity of offence, before attributing personality characteristics to each
offender using a Likert-type scale.
Findings –Contact offenders were perceived as more dangerous than non-contact offenders. Rapists were
perceived as the most dangerous, and voyeurs the least dangerous. Offenders were attributed significantly
different personality traits. Generally, men who sexually offend are perceived to be low in agreeableness,
openness and conscientiousness and high in impulsivity, manipulativeness and neuroticism.
Practical implications –The research highlights the importance of individual risk assessment in determining
best practice treatment for men who have sexually offended (MSO). The Five Factor Model has been proven
to be a useful tool to explore the impact staff attitudes have on risk assessment and treatment. Low-risk and
high-risk MSO would benefit from divergent treatment. Consideration should be given to personality
characteristics in addition to level of risk.
Originality/value –The research determines a hierarchy of men who sexually offend, and goes beyond the
“label”of sexual offenders to explore how personality impacts on formation of attitudes.
Keywords Attitudes, Hierarchy, Attributions, Perceptions, Personality characteristics, Sexual offender
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Attitudes towards offenders have been a frequent research interest for many years.
Attitudes toward s men who have sexual ly offended (MS O) became a researc h interest
in the 1990s, instigating the development of the attitudes towards sex offenders scale
(Hogue, 1993). This initiated research into attitudes towards MSO (e.g. Hogue, 1993;
Hogue and Peebles, 1997). From an internal perspective, MSO have been found to have
more positive attitudes towards their own offender group (Hogue, 1993). From an external
perspective, the l iterature suppo rts an “exposure equ ates to more positiv e attitudes”
argument, with an emphasis on the importance of job role (Hogue, 1993). The importance of
understanding and exploring the att itudes of those who wo rk with MSO is highlig hted
in theories that outline the desistance process, and the factors that contribute to effective
desistance, including the role that staff play in therapeutic treatment and reintegration.
Both the Integrate d Theory of Desistance from Sexua l Offending (Gobbels et al.,2012)andthe
responsivity principle of the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model (Andrews and Bonta, 2010)
highlight the impo rtance of staff in th e treatment and des istance process; t hus we must
understand this process, and make the necessary changes to maintain desistance.
The importance of exp loring sexual offen ding is emphasised by ev idence that suggests
recidivism increases if ex-offenders are not adequately supported upon release into the
community (Laws and Ward, 2011) to access basic primary goods as outlined by the
Good Lives Model (Ward and Maruna, 2007).
Received 7 July 2016
Revised 24 October 2016
Accepted 25 October 2016
Laura Elizabeth Challinor is a
Trainee Forensic Psychologist
at the Centre for Family and
Forensic Psychology,
University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, UK.
Simon Duff is based at the
Forensic and Family
Psychology Department,
University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, UK.
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VOL. 19 NO. 3 2017, pp. 190-197, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2050-8794 DOI 10.1108/JFP-07-2016-0031
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