Community Attitudes Towards Institutional Child Sex Offenders

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a globally prevalent, and vilified, offense. A broad variety of are offenses encompassed within the CSA label but one area appears underexplored within the research community despite gaining considerable attention in the media. The sexual abuse of children perpetrated by persons who gain access to the child through their roles within child serving institutions, referred to here as institutional child sexual abuse. Such offenses are believed to make up a small proportion of CSA acts but media sensationalism can keep the public focused on these types of offences which increases negative attention towards those who commit them. As a step towards closing this apparent research gap, we explore the stigmatization of individuals labelled as institutional child sexual offenders by surveying community members on their desired social distance from, and attitudes towards, institutional child sex offenders. We recruited 347 community-based participants and found that community members have highly negative attitudes towards, and desire increased social distance from, institutional child sex offenders. Such attitudes may have negative implications on the community reintegration of institutional child sex offenders and thus potentially increase the risk of recidivism. This work discusses these findings and the recommendations derived from the study. unknown unknown