Initial Development of the Sex Offender Attitude Scale.

<p>As long as the public maintains staunch and unwarranted negative attitudes toward sex offenders, little hope remains for released sex offenders to successfully reintegrate into society. Therefore, it is in the interest of society that we understand the nature of views of sex offenders so that attempts can be made to promote maximal reintegration and preventing recidivism. To date no valid psychometric instrument exists that measures attitudes toward sex offenders. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to develop such an instrument that will accurately measure stigma associated with sex offenders. Unrotated Prinicipal Components Factor Analysis revealed a single interpretable factor comprised of 17 of the original 27 items with factor loadings of .4 or greater. Chronbach's Alpha Reliability Procedure (a=.88) indicates the SOAS is a valid instrument. The findings suggest possible uses of the SOAS in a variety of areas of sex offender rehabilitation, including treatment and reintegration programs.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MA (Master of Arts)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - unrestricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Bogle, Brandon Coy

• measure
• attitudes
• sex offender
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance
• Sociology

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright by the authors.

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1881

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-3233