Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2015

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Justice Administration

Committee Chair

Tewksbury, Richard

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Swartz, Kristin

Committee Member

Mustaine, Elizabeth

Subject

Judges--United States--Attitudes; Sex offenders--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States; Sex offenders--United States--Registers

Abstract

There is a meager amount of literature available on how criminal justice system actors perceive the range of sex offender registration and community notification (SORN) policies and their effectiveness, as well as sex offenders themselves. To date, only one study has been done on judges regarding their attitudes toward sexual offenders by Bumby and Maddox (1999). However, a study has not been completed in regard to judges’ perceptions of SORN and its efficacy in addition to their views on residency restrictions. The following study tries to expand the literature available and examines the perceptions of judges concerning SORN, residency restrictions, and sexual offenders. A survey was distributed which contained the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale (Church, et al. 2008). This scale was recommended to be used with actors of the criminal justice system; however, this study examines if the scale is an efficient instrument for categorizing the perceptions of judges. The findings are discussed.

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