First steps in the development of a new measure of attitudes toward sexual offending against children

Abstract

It is unclear whether existing measures of attitudes and cognitive distortions regarding sexual offending against children (SOC) reflect evaluative attitudes toward SOC (i.e., how negatively or positively one views SOC). The purpose of the current study was to take the first steps toward creating a self-report measure of evaluative attitudes toward SOC. We created 30 items and asked 157 incarcerated people in a sexual offense treatment program to complete them. We retained the 13 items that were the least positively skewed (i.e., lowest endorsement of the most negative response option) and non-redundant (i.e., not too highly correlated with other items) for inclusion in the new measure, which we called the Evaluative Attitudes Toward Sexual Offending Against Children (EASOC) Scale. As an initial test of the relevance of the EASOC Scale, we examined its association with SOC. Participants with SOC (n = 58) reported more positive evaluative attitudes on the EASOC Scale than did those without SOC (n = 22). This expected association is a necessary (but not sufficient) indication that the EASOC Scale may be relevant for predicting and explaining SOC. Future research using more rigorous methodology should build on our modest first steps to revisit item selection and test the validity and relevance of the EASOC Scale.