| Community attitudes toward sex offenders are a widely studied phenomenon. With the advent of the sex offender registry list, more people than ever are able to find out if there are sex offenders in their neighborhood. In order to better understand the impact of the sex offender registry and notification policies on the behaviors and attitudes of the general population, it is important to examine what specific factors may lead to negative emotions toward sex offenders. Further, it is important to consider whether potential negative attitudes toward sex offenders have farther-reaching effects. For example, negative attitudes and behaviors toward a sex offender are likely to have an impact on family members of the offender, particularly the children of the offender. This study seeks to explore community attitudes toward sex offenders and the collateral impact of these attitudes on the family members, especially children, of sex offenders. The current study is divided into two sections: the pilot test and the experiment. The pilot test used a modified version of the Community Attitude Toward Sex Offenders survey to assess attitudes of participants toward sex offenders and the children of sex offenders. The experiment was divided into three conditions. For each condition, participants were shown a video of a child with different demographic information, then asked to complete a ranking of characteristics to assess the impact of various covariates on attitudes toward a child of a sex offender. In general, the results of this study show only a few statistically significant attitudes or opinions toward the nonvictim children of sex offenders. Results from the pilot test suggested a trend towards bias related to the children of sex offenders, as the most highly agreed with statement indicated that participants felt the children of sex offenders have no hope of becoming anything but criminals. The experiment yielded more statistically significant results, mainly related to the covariates introduced during the MANCOVA analysis. |
