Once a sex offender- always a sex offender?

Abstract

Studies have repeatedly established the public‘s negative and prejudicial attitudes towards sex offenders, and shown that people tend to be even more punitively inclined towards sex offenders than towards other offenders. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of holding workshops on attitudes toward sex offenders, with the main aim of promoting more realistic attitudes towards this group. Undergraduate students answered two questionnaires; Attitudes Towards Prisoners (ATP) and Attitudes Towards Sex Offenders (ATS). The workshop was designed for two one-and-a-half-hour sessions. Prior to the workshop, immediately after the workshop and six weeks later, the students answered the questionnaires. Professionals at the Reykjavik city welfare department served as a control group with no intervention, and answered the questionnaires once. Compared to professionals, students´ attitudes towards sex offenders were less positive, prior to the workshop. Results also indicated that after the workshop, the students´ attitudes were more realistic than prior to the workshop and remained so six weeks later. The results suggest that the impact of this short educational workshop is promising. The workshop approach should be considered by those who provide services to those who sexually offend against others, in order to enhance understanding of the needs of this client group and to increase the quality of the service in order to reduce the risk of recidivism. Keywords: sex offenders, attitudes, stigmatization, reintegration, workshop