Community notification aims to warn the public when reintegrating sexual offenders represent a significant risk to public safety. However, anxiety and powerlessness are often unintentional side-effects of notification. Fear appeals are persuasive messages that arouse fear of a threat and may include recommended actions for avoiding the threat. This research applied a fear appeal theory, the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM), to community notification web pages. Study 1, a systematic review of existing community notification web pages, informed the development of a traditional web page vignette for Study 2. Study 2 compared the traditional web page format to a high efficacy web page intervention, which comprised educational information on avoiding sexual victimization. The EPPM predicted positive correlations between fear and perceived threat (hypothesis 1), fear and behavioural intentions (hypothesis 2), and perceived efficacy and intentions to adopt victimization prevention behaviours (hypothesis 4) as well as negative correlations between perceived efficacy and maladaptive fear control responses (hypothesis 3). The intervention group was predicted to have higher perceived threat, higher perceived efficacy, be less likely to adopt fear control responses, and more likely to endorse behavioural intentions than the control group (hypothesis 5). Female participants were hypothesized to have higher fear, perceived threat, fear control responses, and behavioural intentions and lower perceived efficacy than male participants (hypothesis 6). The results provide preliminary support for the EPPMs ability to explain reactions to receiving a community notification. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 4 were fully supported and hypothesis 6 was partially supported as females displayed higher fear, perceived threat, and behavioural intentions; however, the intervention was ineffective in producing differences between the intervention and control groups (hypothesis 5). Exploratory regression analyses found gender, education level, previous victimization, parental status, and locus of control were related to the EPPMs variables. Future research should examine the impact of different educational materials and delivery systems (such as interpersonal sources, media, and web-based multi-media) to further examine the application of the EPPM to web-based sexual offender community notification and determine whether it is possible to increase adaptive responses to receiving a community notification by providing educational information.

Community notification aims to warn the public when reintegrating sexual offenders represent a significant risk to public safety. However, anxiety and powerlessness are often unintentional side-effects of notification. Fear appeals are persuasive messages that arouse fear of a threat and may include recommended actions for avoiding the threat. This research applied a fear appeal theory, the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM), to community notification web pages. Study 1, a systematic review of existing community notification web pages, informed the development of a traditional web page vignette for Study 2. Study 2 compared the traditional web page format to a high efficacy web page intervention, which comprised educational information on avoiding sexual victimization. The EPPM predicted positive correlations between fear and perceived threat (hypothesis 1), fear and behavioural intentions (hypothesis 2), and perceived efficacy and intentions to adopt victimization prevention behaviours (hypothesis 4) as well as negative correlations between perceived efficacy and maladaptive fear control responses (hypothesis 3). The intervention group was predicted to have higher perceived threat, higher perceived efficacy, be less likely to adopt fear control responses, and more likely to endorse behavioural intentions than the control group (hypothesis 5). Female participants were hypothesized to have higher fear, perceived threat, fear control responses, and behavioural intentions and lower perceived efficacy than male participants (hypothesis 6). The results provide preliminary support for the EPPMs ability to explain reactions to receiving a community notification. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 4 were fully supported and hypothesis 6 was partially supported as females displayed higher fear, perceived threat, and behavioural intentions; however, the intervention was ineffective in producing differences between the intervention and control groups (hypothesis 5). Exploratory regression analyses found gender, education level, previous victimization, parental status, and locus of control were related to the EPPMs variables. Future research should examine the impact of different educational materials and delivery systems (such as interpersonal sources, media, and web-based multi-media) to further examine the application of the EPPM to web-based sexual offender community notification and determine whether it is possible to increase adaptive responses to receiving a community notification by providing educational information.

The violent sexual assault of women and the rehabilitation of its perpetrators is an area of crime that has been scarcely researched. The problem of sexual aggression is multi-dimensional and accordingly a comprehensive assessment needs to address a wide range of psychological vulnerabilities and offence process characteristics to enhance treatment customisation. The purpose of this study was to create a clinician rated measure for the treatment classification of rapists – Checklist of Offence Pathways – Rapist Version - and to assess the measure’s reliability and validity. The 15-item measure was created using the framework of the pathways model (Ward & Hudson, 1998; Ward, Hudson, & Keenan, 1998). The measure was divided into two subscales measuring approach vs. avoidant goals and active vs. passive strategies. Both subscales demonstrated significant interrater reliability (r = .53 and r = .46, respectively) as well as internal consistency (a = .50 and a = .60, respectively). The majority (80%) of the inter-item correlations were uncorrelated or weak indicating that the test items were measuring separate constructs. Validity analysis indicated that a number of test items displayed convergent and discriminant validity with established psychometric scales. Overall these results suggest that this measure provides a useful framework for understanding sexual aggression and selecting treatment strategies for rapists, while avoiding some of the pitfalls associated with dissimulation in self-report measures.

No description available.

No description available.

<p><p><p><p>The purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge of which discourses dominate the courts’ decisions concerning sentences for young sexual offenders. The issues touched upon were which circumstances the courts find important and which discourses reflect those circumstances when deciding on sentences for young sexual offenders as well as how children that commit crimes are constructed by the court. The study looked at cases of sexual offence where the offender was between 15 and 17 years old, and was based on judgements established at the Stockholm district courts in 2007 and 2008. The method used was content analysis, both manifesto and latent. By using content analysis the information was structured into a manageable basis for the following discourse analysis, which was implemented according to the theory for this study described in King and Piper’s (1995) book How the Law Thinks About Children. Discourse analysis gave an insight into which discourses are most prominent in verdicts against young sexual offenders. The results show that the social services’ recommendations are not given much importance in the courts’ decisions of suitable sentences for young sexual offenders. A majority of the youths were sentenced to criminal punishment such as a youth community order service and a youth detention order. Factors of particular importance in the verdicts are the specifics of the crime, whether or not the offenders understood or should have understood that they were committing a crime, responsibility, age, consent, suitable sentences as well as the credibility and reliability of given statements. The young defendants were constructed by the courts as criminals with regard to the criminal act and the youths’ responsibility for the action. The offenders’ personal and social situation was not given particular importance.</p></p></p></p>

The purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge of which discourses dominate the courts’ decisions concerning sentences for young sexual offenders. The issues touched upon were which circumstances the courts find important and which discourses reflect those circumstances when deciding on sentences for young sexual offenders as well as how children that commit crimes are constructed by the court. The study looked at cases of sexual offence where the offender was between 15 and 17 years old, and was based on judgements established at the Stockholm district courts in 2007 and 2008. The method used was content analysis, both manifesto and latent. By using content analysis the information was structured into a manageable basis for the following discourse analysis, which was implemented according to the theory for this study described in King and Piper’s (1995) book How the Law Thinks About Children. Discourse analysis gave an insight into which discourses are most prominent in verdicts against young sexual offenders. The results show that the social services’ recommendations are not given much importance in the courts’ decisions of suitable sentences for young sexual offenders. A majority of the youths were sentenced to criminal punishment such as a youth community order service and a youth detention order. Factors of particular importance in the verdicts are the specifics of the crime, whether or not the offenders understood or should have understood that they were committing a crime, responsibility, age, consent, suitable sentences as well as the credibility and reliability of given statements. The young defendants were constructed by the courts as criminals with regard to the criminal act and the youths’ responsibility for the action. The offenders’ personal and social situation was not given particular importance.

Although their numbers are in the minority in the general offender population, psychopathic offenders are responsible for a significant proportion of the most serious offenses committed (Hare, 1993, 2003). A particularly serious concern is that they are a notoriously challenging population to work with clinically and effectively treat (Polaschek, 2014; Salekin, 2002). Recent findings suggest, however, that psychopathic offenders are able to demonstrate treatment changes that translate into reduced recidivism (Olver & Wong, 2009). A greater understanding of the etiology and treatment responses of psychopathic offenders is needed (Salekin, 2002). Consequently, the present archival dissertation program of research aimed to explore the etiological and treatment response variables of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic sexual offenders in a sample of 302 federal inmates. The influence of psychopathy, risk, and treatment change as it pertained to rates of long-term recidivism was explored. Further, to add to the growing body of literature suggesting that psychopathy may be best conceptualized as different subtypes, cluster analysis was utilized to examine the potential of subtypes of psychopathic offenders who respond differently to treatment. Finally, it has been proposed that psychopathic traits may be adaptive and thus, treatment resistant (Harris & Rice, 2006). Therefore, the relationship between treatment response and evolutionarily relevant variables was explored. Phase one results were consistent with past findings (Olver & Wong, 2009; Olver, Stockdale, & Wormith, 2011) where psychopathic offenders demonstrated higher rates of treatment drop out, but the majority did complete treatment in the current sample. Furthermore, although psychopathic offenders amassed fewer risk relevant treatment gains than their nonpsychopathic counterparts on the whole, there was a group of psychopathic individuals whose therapeutic gains were high and resulted in similar recidivism rates to the nonpsychopathic offenders. Finally, after controlling for comprehensive baseline risk level and treatment change, the PCL-R no longer significantly predicted violent or sexual recidivism. Moreover, treatment change was associated with reduced recidivism, regardless of risk level or psychopathy. This provided support for Wong and colleagues (2012) two component model for the treatment of psychopathy, wherein if service providers can manage and respond to the specific responsivity issues with psychopathic individuals and increase their engagement in treatment, then risk relevant changes that result in lower recidivism are possible. In phase two, two subtypes of psychopathic offenders were found using PCL-R facet scores that were consistent with the primary and secondary distinction. The primary subtype demonstrated a high degree of the classic psychopathic personality traits, whereas the secondary type had more behavioral and lifestyle traits and to a lesser degree, the callous personality. In terms of external variables, the secondary group had slightly higher risk levels, treatment change, and rates of violent reoffending, but the differences failed to reach statistical significance. Finally, in phase three, there was evidence for psychopathy’s relationship with proxies for adaptation, but the evidence for adaptation had little bearing on treatment response. Furthermore, the adaptive markers were largely accounted for by the general antisociality of psychopathy, rather than the psychopathic personality itself. The results were then integrated and implications for the future treatment of psychopathic offenders were discussed.

No description available.

No description available.