Ethical Practice in Sex Offender Assessment

Vess, James

doi:10.1177/1079063210382045

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Given the nature and damaging consequences of sexual crime, it is not surprising that people within society hold such attitudes. Sexual offenders and the type of offenses they commit elicit negative affective reactions, such as fear, disgust, and moral outrage (Kernsmith, Craun, & Foster, 2009; Vess, 2009; Willis et al, 2010), which can provide the basis for one’s negative attitude toward sexual offenders; a phenomenon known as “affect-as-information” (Clore, Gasper, & Garvin, 2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Implicit Theories and Offender Representativeness in Judgments About Sexual Crime

Harper

Bartels

2016

Sex Abuse

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Implicit theories structure the way people understand and respond to various human actions.Typically, people believe attributes are either fixed (entitists) or malleable (incrementalists).The present study aimed to examine: (a) whether attitudes towards sexual offenders differ depending upon one's implicit theory about human nature and sexual offenders, and (b) whether implicit theories are associated with judgments made about different types of child abuser. A sample of 252 community participants was recruited. Their attitudes, implicit theories, and political orientation were assessed via self-report. One of three vignettes describing an incidence of child sexual abuse was then presented. The cases were identical except the perpetrator was either an adult male, an adult female, or a male juvenile. Participants then made judgments about the offender's deserved sentence and moral character. Entitists (across both domains) held more negative attitudes than incrementalists, although the magnitude of the difference was greatest when examining implicit theories about sexual offenders. Compared to those with an incremental theory of sexual offenders, entity theorists judged sexual offending to be more: (a) indicative of the perpetrator's moral character, and (b) deserving of punishment. However, scores were greater towards the adult male relative to the adult female and juvenile. The findings suggest that implicit theories about sexual offenders are domain-specific. They also indicate that judgments made by those with an entity theory (about sexual offenders) are affected by whether a case is representative of a stereotypical sexual offender. Implications of the findings are discussed, along with limitations and future research.Keywords: implicit theories; representativeness heuristic; sexual offenders; public attitudes; schema 3 Implicit theories and offender representativeness in judgments about sexual crimeMuch research has demonstrated that people generally hold more negative attitudes towards sexual offenders than perpetrators of other crime types (e.g., Rogers & Ferguson, 2011;Willis, Levenson, & Ward, 2010). Given the nature and damaging consequences of sexual crime, it is not surprising that people within society hold such attitudes. Sexual offenders and the type of offenses they commit elicit negative affective reactions, such as fear, disgust, and moral outrage (Kernsmith, Craun, & Foster, 2009;Vess, 2009;Willis et al., 2010), which can provide the basis for one's negative attitude towards sexual offenders; a phenomenon known as 'affect-as-information' (Clore, Gasper, & Garvin, 2001).People have a striking ability to effortlessly form attitudes on the basis of "media exposure, and other forms of socially-supplied information" (Crano, Cooper, & Forgas, 2010, p.3). Therefore, media coverage about sexual offenders is likely to play a major role in shaping the public's attitude towards sexual offenders (Craun & Theriot, 2009;Galeste, Fradella, & Vogel, 2012;Harper & Hogue, 2015a;Malinen, Willis, & ...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Implicit Theories and Offender Representativeness in Judgments About Sexual Crime

Harper

Bartels

2016

Sex Abuse

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Polygraph tests typically used in PCSOT are versions of the comparison question technique, also known as the Control Question Test (CQT; Meijer et al, 2008). The CQT has generated substantial controversy and intense debate since its introduction (Ben-Shakhar, 2002; Iacono & Ben-Shakhar, 2019), including a lack of consensus regarding a standard application in sexual offense–specific treatment (Branaman & Gallagher, 2005; Fiedler et al, 2002; Meijer et al, 2008; Nelson, 2018; Vess, 2011).…”

Section: Wisconsin’s Svp Lawmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of polygraphs on evaluators' decisions regarding sexually violent persons.

Gillen,

Card,

Smith

et al. 2023

Law and Human Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: This study examined the degree to which polygraph results affected evaluators’ decisions regarding patients committed as sexually violent persons (SVPs) in Wisconsin. Specifically, we examined evaluators’ opinions on patients’ significant progress in treatment (SPT), suitability for supervised release, and suitability for discharge. Hypotheses: We hypothesized that having failed a polygraph during the prior year would predict evaluators’ opinions that patients did not meet criteria for SPT, supervised release, and discharge from civil commitment even after analyses controlled for other factors related to evaluators’ decision making. Similarly, we hypothesized that patients taking and passing polygraphs in the year before the evaluations would predict positive recommendations for the aforementioned outcomes. Method: All patients civilly committed under Wisconsin’s SVP statute who had a Treatment Progress Report (TPR) and a Chapter 980.07 evaluation completed by a state-employed forensic evaluator in 2017 were eligible for this study; we selected a random sample of 158 participants. TPR and 980.07 evaluation reports were coded to reflect evaluators’ opinions regarding SPT, supervised release, and/or discharge. All polygraph types and outcomes completed within the review period were coded. Results: Results indicated that taking and passing polygraphs significantly predicted favorable evaluator opinions regarding SPT after analyses controlled for other potentially relevant factors. Polygraphs were not significantly predictive of discharge or supervised release recommendations after analyses controlled for other factors. Conclusions: Some polygraph outcomes may affect specific evaluator opinions regarding treatment progress.

show abstract

“…This refers to the automatic emotional responses that we have to the target attitude object. In relation to sexual offenders, several authors have argued that the phrase 'sexual offender' evokes visceral responses such as disgust, fear, and loathing (e.g., Bastian, Denson, & Haslam, 2013;Vess, 2009), and that these emotional responses can give rise to more punitive responses than when more sanitized or descriptive labels are used (Harris & Socia, 2016).…”

Section: Differentiating 'Attitudes' and 'Perceptions' About Sexual Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a 21-item short form of the Attitudes to Sexual Offenders (ATS) Scale.

Hogue¹,

Harper²

2019

Law and Human Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Attitudes to Sexual Offenders scale (ATS; Hogue, 1993) is one of the most widely-used measurement instruments for assessing views about sexual offenders. The ATS has been used in a variety of contexts, most commonly in comparing forensic professionals and non-professionals in relation to their views about this population. This paper offers a review of the methods used to examine attitudes toward sexual offenders currently available, before systematically outlining the validation of a 21-item shortened version of the ATS measure (the 'ATS-21'). First, we analyzed the ATS with regards to its underlying factor structure using a general community sample (Study 1; n = 188). This identified three factors: 'Trust', 'Intent', and 'Social Distance'. We subsequently supported this structure through confirmatory factor analysis in a new community sample (Study 2; n = 335) and Hogue's (1993) original ATS development data (Study 3; n = 170) in order to provide further evidence of its reliability. We also offer preliminary evidence of the ATS-21's test-retest reliability, consistency across multiple testing contexts, resistance to social desirability, and independence from related measures (Study 4; n = 59). We close by recommending the use of the ATS-21 for researchers examining attitudes toward sexual offenders and offer suggestions for a new unified research design to incorporate the ATS-21 into emerging research into the psychological underpinnings of attitudes and responses to sexual offenders.

show abstract

Ethical Practice in Sex Offender Assessment

Cited by 15 publications

References 41 publications

Implicit Theories and Offender Representativeness in Judgments About Sexual Crime

Implicit Theories and Offender Representativeness in Judgments About Sexual Crime

The influence of polygraphs on evaluators' decisions regarding sexually violent persons.

Development of a 21-item short form of the Attitudes to Sexual Offenders (ATS) Scale.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About