Although many research studies about sexual offender registration exist, there is no qualitative study on the perspective of police officers whose job duties include the implementation of Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN) laws. The purpose of this case study was to explore specific police officers' perceptions of sex offender registration. Six police officers were hand selected for face-to-face interviews based on their unique job duties that included responsibilities and training related to the implementation of the sexual offender registration and community notification protocols. Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory provided the theoretical framework for this research study. According to study findings, the majority of the police officers in this study supported sexual offender registration despite the lack of research that supports its effectiveness. Data gathered from conducting face-to face interviews with the identified police officers revealed that 5 out of 6 police officers believed that SORN policies had a positive impact on enhancing community safety, and half of the police officers felt that SORN policies reduced recidivism. All of the police officers in the study called for more formal training and education about SORN. Also, these police officers identified money and human power as barriers to proactive efforts or effective management of the sexual offenders who lived in their jurisdiction. Finally, the police officers in this study suggested the use of specialized officers or the creation of a task force as a method to better address the sexual offenders in the community. Exploring these options could have far-reaching implications for positive social change for the law enforcement community and society as a whole.

The current thesis examines how sex offenders are portrayed in newspapers in Germany with the use of a qualitative content analysis. Utilized were 49 articles both from a German tabloid called “Bild-Zeitung” and a broadsheet called “die Zeit”. Three main themes were identified and analyzed. Initially, the focus was on the portrayal of the sex offenders, followed by the portrayal of the victims and lastly which agencies and how they were mentioned. For each main theme several subthemes were formulated in order to examine the main themes in more depth. Findings suggest that most articles emphasized the previous criminal history of the offenders and stressed negative personality traits, leaving a stereotypical image. Findings of the second theme indicate that victims are rarely blamed for the offenses, while empathy establishment was emphasized through the use of the detailed description of the brutality of the offenses, especially for cases with underaged victims. The analysis of the last theme showed that police and investigators were portrayed mostly as doing a good job and working effectively in investigations, whereas experts like social workers, psychologists or lawyers were interviewed in less articles. The opinion of politicians and the public opinion mostly emphasized the demands for harsher punishment and longer incarceration. Therefore, the majority of articles examined showed a stereotypical image of the offenders, portraying them as recurrently reoffending,opportunistic and brutal.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 denise.pdf: 376486 bytes, checksum: 34a280c7bdfba2e0c5c9f9d282daae6e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-28 / To characterize the emotional and behavioral profile of adolescents and adults accused of child sexual abuse. Also we aimed to identify their criminal history. METHOD: It s a retrospective descriptive study, based on official records from a special service (interviews, psychological tests protocols and psychosocial appraisal). The subjects of the study were all the suspects of child sexual abuse forwarded between 2002-2010 to a specialized Center in the Southern Brazil. Moreover, information was also collected from the Justice System available records. RESULTS: It was found that the majority were adults (60%), had completed the eighth grade (82,9%) and sustain themselves (54,5%). Mostly made one victim (85%), between 6 and 11 years old (41%) that was female (69%). On the records was found registries and indicators of impulsive, aggressive and controller behavior as well as emotional insecurity and dependence. CONCLUSION: The results indicate, between the suspects, characteristics commonly identified in sex offenders. Prevention and treatment strategies must go forward the sex offender mental health and, principally avoid further victimizations / OBJETIVO: Caracterizar o perfil emocional e comportamental de adolescentes e adultos suspeitos de praticar abuso sexual, bem como, identificar o respectivo histórico criminal. MÉTODO: Estudo retrospectivo, de caráter descritivo baseado na análise dos prontuários, contendo entrevistas, protocolos de testes psicológicos e pareceres psicossociais. Os sujeitos do estudo foram todos os suspeitos de terem cometido abuso sexual, encaminhados entre os anos de 2002 e 2010, a um serviço especializado, no sul do Brasil. Foram ainda colhidas informações junto às certidões de antecedentes criminais e/ou processos judiciais. RESULTADOS: Verificou-se que a maioria eram adultos (60%), do sexo masculino (99,3%), da cor branca (60,3%), estudaram até o ensino fundamental completo (82,9%) e tinham renda própria (54,5%). A maioria abusou de uma vítima (85%), com idade entre 6 e 11 anos (41%) e do sexo feminino (69%). Nos prontuários haviam registros e indicadores de comportamento impulsivo, agressivo e controlador; insegurança afetiva e dependência emocional. CONCLUSÃO: Os resultados apontaram, entre os suspeitos, características comumente encontradas em agressores sexuais. Estratégias de prevenção e tratamento devem buscar a saúde mental do abusador sexual e, sobretudo, evitar mais vitimizações

This thesis examines the use of restorative justice with cases of sexual assault in Canada through the perspective of practitioner experience. It concludes that restorative justice for sexual assault is an innovative and viable justice practice that should be offered to survivor-victims as an option for their justice-seeking process. A literature review was undertaken to create a summary of past and current academic perspectives on the topic and to provide context for the interviews. Interviews were conducted with 12 restorative justice practitioners in Canada who have experience facilitating or participating in restorative justice processes that dealt with sexual assault. The data from the interviews was analyzed using thematic coding to produce a set of themes based on practitioner experience. The data was also used to examine the ethical issues that are relevant in the current landscape. This thesis determines that practitioners are knowledgeable about the practices that can make the restorative justice process safer. It finds that practitioners report being able to meet the varying needs of survivor-victims through procedural flexibility. It observes that they struggle with the practical and ethical tensions that arise in their work, but these tensions are manageable, and they are committed to working with them. Restorative justice has the potential to address a sexual assault case successfully when survivor-victim needs are met, safer practices are used, and practitioners are informed about the complexities and varying experiences of sexual assault. / Graduate

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:46:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gisele_Scobernatti_ Dissertacao.pdf: 625559 bytes, checksum: 23eb96ad7ef3ad241ce116b9ed2c3b66 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-31 / The analysis of women s motivations that lead to committing sexual abuse is the central focus of this project, having as background, social historical and cultural construction of subjectivities of men and women that sexually abuse. For such an achievement, methodological resources of an oral history of life and theme were used, as well as a documentary analysis of formal procedures, considering that the sexual abuse of children and adolescents is considered crime by the Brazilian Law. Thus, the observation of treatment exempted by the protective systems and of criminal responsibility was also present, as well as the changes occurred in the Brazilian legislation and the family history of abusers that took part in this study. Identifying, there are no major differences in motivation as for men or women that commit sexual abuse, however even if the criminal law has tried to adjust to the historical and social changes of the country, it seems to not be able to give equal treatment to men and women who commit sexual abuse. The women become invisible before the law, not being recognized as capable of perpetrating violence. There is however a severe moral censure that confine them to a private world, reaffirming a historical assumption that women should stay locked indoors and take care of the family, leaving the transgressions of the public environment to the men, known to be capable of producing violence. / A análise das motivações femininas que levam ao cometimento do abuso sexual constitui o foco central deste trabalho, tendo como pano de fundo os elementos sóciohistóricos e culturais que pudessem estar presentes na construção das subjetividades de homens e mulheres que abusam sexualmente. Para tal empreendimento, utilizou-se como recursos metodológicos, a história oral de vida e temática, bem como a análise documental de procedimentos formais, porquanto o abuso sexual de crianças e adolescentes é considerado crime pelo ordenamento jurídico brasileiro. Desse modo, a observação do tratamento dispensado pelos sistemas de proteção e de responsabilização penal também esteve presente, assim como as mudanças ocorridas na legislação brasileira e, ainda, a história familiar dos abusadores e das abusadoras que tomaram parte deste estudo. Identifica-se que não há maiores diferenças de motivação enquanto homem ou mulher, contudo, mesmo que a lei penal tenha tentado adequar-se às mudanças históricas e sociais do país, ela parece que não consegue ainda dar tratamento igualitário a homens e mulheres que cometem abuso sexual. Tornam-se às mulheres invisíveis diante da lei, não sendo reconhecidas como capazes de perpetrar violências. Há, entretanto, uma severa censura moral que as confina ao mundo privado, reafirmando um pressuposto histórico de que as mulheres devem manter-se presas à casa e aos cuidados da família, deixando as transgressões no ambiente público para os homens, reconhecidos como capazes de produzir violência.

A comprehensive literature review indicated that there is a dearth of research focusing on female youth sex offenders and even less is known about the perceptions of female youth sex offenders regarding the factors that contributed to their offending. This study explores the perceptions of female youth sex offenders regarding their reasons for offending. The female youth sex offenders in this study indicated that various factors as discussed below contributed to their offending. The empirical findings of this study confirmed that female youth sex offenders are of the opinion that certain problems within their families possibly contributed to their offending behaviour. Some of these characteristics include factors such as divorce, poor parenting skills, domestic violence, substance abuse and lack of basic care and safety, just to mention a few. Female youth sex offenders’ lack of assertiveness, low self-esteem and identity issues were other factors that most probably contributed to their sexual offending. When taking into account that the majority of the participants’ parents were unemployed, poverty was another factor that most likely played a contributory role. Due to poverty in the household some of these youth were forced to relocate to Girls’ Homes, change schools or drop out of school. In order to curb female youth sex offending one would need to address these factors in a multidisciplinary and holistic manner. This study reports an in-depth qualitative understanding of the perceptions of female youth sex offenders regarding factors that contributed to their offending. In addition the last objective of this study will be the formulation of recommendations to address female youth sex offending more effectively. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

Youth sex offenders are not a homogenous population. They differ in terms of race, social class, victim preferences (both in terms of age and in terms of whether the victim is known to the offender or not), their modus operandi to gain compliance, levels of aggression and physical violence, the types (“hands on” or “hands off”) and levels (level 1, 2, or 3) of offences and lastly their motivations for committing a sex offence. The motivations are linked to the risk factors to which an individual is exposed, for example, a youth that was previously sexually victimised could sexually act out his experiences. A qualitative approach was used in this study. The researcher aimed to gain a holistic comprehension of the risk factors that youth attribute to their sex offending behaviour and thus this was the most appropriate approach to use. A semi-structured interview schedule was used as the data collection method as this allowed the researcher the freedom to change the sequence and forms of the questions in order to follow up on responses. The function of this interview schedule was to direct the researcher to ensure that she covered all the themes needed to obtain the necessary data. The interview schedule was made up of nine categories, namely: biographic characteristics, academic performance, extramural activities, substance use, family substance use problems, family and community violence, emotional status, caring and attachment to family and peers, sexual abuse and knowledge about sex. After the interviews were conducted, the data was transcribed, analysed and interpreted. The researcher made use of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to determine the emergent themes. The researcher eliminated the emergent themes that were impossible to label, or those deemed to be irrelevant to the study. Thereafter, the researcher clustered the emergent themes into sub-ordinate themes and validated these main and sub-ordinate themes. The researcher then provided a textural description to depict the experience and a structural description to depict the possible explanation of the experience of the respondents. Finally, a composite description provided the structure for the interpretation of the data. The researcher interpreted the main and sub-ordinate themes with relation to the literature review and the theories deemed useful in explaining the risk factors associated with youth sex offending, namely: Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory of personality development, Albert Bandura’s social cognition theory, William Marshall and Howard Barbaree’s integrated theory, and Neil Malamuth’s confluence model of sexual aggression. The analysis and interpretation of the data revealed certain possible risk factors that could contribute to the phenomenon of youth sex offending in South Africa. The researcher provided possible methods of addressing these risk factors. The dearth of knowledge regarding the phenomenon of youth sex offending highlights the need for further research and the researcher made several recommendations regarding future research prospects in order to address this social problem and to give youth sex offenders the best chance of adopting pro-social behaviour. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

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