The sexual abuse of children by strangers: its extent, nature and victims' characteristics

Gallagher, Bernard; Bradford, Michael; Pease, Ken

doi:10.1002/chi.724

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The endorsement of stereotypes can be extremely limiting. For example, the threat of stranger abuse has led 68% of parents to feel intense pressure to continually supervise their children, 60% to be less likely to let them play out of sight or see their friends and to drive their children to school (Hillman, 1993, cited in Gallagher, Bradford, & Pease, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stereotypes and attitudes about child sexual abusers: A comparison of experienced and inexperienced professionals in sex offender treatment

Sanghara

Wilson

2006

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose. The danger of stereotyping child sex offenders is that such stereotypes allow suspected abusers to avoid detection. The current study investigated whether professionals involved in the treatment of sex offenders endorsed less stereotypes of sex offenders than an ‘inexperienced’ group of teachers. Method. Sixty professionals involved with sex offenders and 71 school teachers completed three questionnaires: the Stereotypes of Sex Offenders Questionnaire; Attitudes Towards Sex Offenders Scale (Hogue, 1993) and Knowledge of Child Abuse Questionnaire (created for the present study). Mediation analyses were then conducted on the relationships between the scores. Results. Experienced professionals endorsed negative stereotypes less, had more positive attitudes towards sex offenders and expressed more knowledge of child abuse than the inexperienced group. Further, attitudes towards child sexual offenders were significantly mediated by the effect of knowledge of child abuse on group (experienced, inexperienced). However, there was no significant mediation for the effect of knowledge on child abuse on the relationship between group (experienced, inexperienced) and stereotype consistent scores. Conclusions. The less knowledge of child abuse, the more stereotypical one may be about potential child sex offenders. Thus, it may be useful to increase knowledge on child abuse in inexperienced groups to counter stereotyping and allow greater detection of offenders.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stereotypes and attitudes about child sexual abusers: A comparison of experienced and inexperienced professionals in sex offender treatment

Sanghara

Wilson

2006

Legal Criminol Psychol

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“…Most of the studies on violence against children focus on separate, fairly narrow categories of violence experiences, such as corporal punishment (Sariola and Uutela 1992;Nobes and Smith 2002;Durrant et al 2003), sexual abuse (Sariola and Uutela 1994;Gallagher et al 2002;Helweg-Larsen and Larsen 2005), or cyber bullying (Li 2006;Patchin and Hinduja 2006). There is also research on the influence of those single types of violent experiences on child adjustment and wellbeing (Berson 2003;Corby 2001;Peltonen et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Poly-Victimization as a Life Condition: Correlates of Poly-Victimization among Finnish Children

Ellonen

Salmi²

2011

jssccp

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“…A considerable number of crimes against children are committed by strangers (e.g., abductions: Gallagher, Bradford, & Pease, 2002; sexual assaults: Cawson, Wattam, Brooker, & Kelly, 2000; Newiss & Fairbrother, 2004). Because crimes like these seldom involve adult eyewitnesses, it is likely that the child will hold the only clue to the perpetrator's identity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the effects of age and delay on children's person identifications: Verbal descriptions, lineup performance, and the influence of wildcards

Karageorge¹,

Zajac²

2011

British Journal of Psychology

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We explored the effects of age and retention interval on several measures of children's person identification ability: verbal descriptions, lineup performance, and the success of a 'wildcard'--a photo of a silhouetted figure with a large question mark superimposed--in reducing children's tendency to choose from target-absent lineups. Children aged 5-7 years (N= 101) and 8-11 years (N= 109) were briefly exposed to an experimental confederate during a staged event. Either 1-2 days or 2 weeks later, children described the confederate and were then presented with either a target-present or -absent lineup. Within each group, approximately half of the children were presented with a wildcard and half were not. Target-present lineup performance improved as age increased. Compared to control children, children in the wildcard condition were more likely to correctly reject the target-absent lineup, and less likely to identify the innocent suspect. The wildcard did not influence children's target-present lineup accuracy, nor did delay exert an influence on any of our measures of lineup performance. These findings extend our knowledge of children's person identifications, as well as providing further support for the use of wildcards in photographic lineups.

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The sexual abuse of children by strangers: its extent, nature and victims' characteristics

Cited by 12 publications

References 9 publications

Stereotypes and attitudes about child sexual abusers: A comparison of experienced and inexperienced professionals in sex offender treatment

Stereotypes and attitudes about child sexual abusers: A comparison of experienced and inexperienced professionals in sex offender treatment

Poly-Victimization as a Life Condition: Correlates of Poly-Victimization among Finnish Children

Exploring the effects of age and delay on children's person identifications: Verbal descriptions, lineup performance, and the influence of wildcards

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