Professional attitudes to sex offenders: Implications for multiagency and collaborative working
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Boni, Nadia
Hobbs, Gaynor
Carson, Ed
Whitting, Laura
Powell, Martine
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Abstract
Recent years have seen the development and implementation of a range of multi-disciplinary and partnership approaches to managing risk in known sex offenders, involving collaboration between justice and human services agencies. Potential barriers to the development of effective multidisciplinary practices arise when participating professionals hold different attitudes about those they are responsible for managing. This paper examines differences in attitudes towards sex offenders in two professional groups - police officers and allied health workers. The results suggest that police officers tend to hold more negative views than those who deliver treatment and support services. They are more likely to believe that offenders cannot change their behaviour and should be subject to more punitive sanctions. These findings are discussed in relation to judgements of both risk and dangerousness and associated decisions about the appropriate management of sex offenders in multi-agency and multi-disciplinary working forums.
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Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand
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6
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1
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© 2014 Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand & Author(s). The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
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Subject
Forensic Psychology
Police Administration, Procedures and Practice
Clinical Sciences
Criminology
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Day, A; Boni, N; Hobbs, G; Carson, E; Whitting, L; Powell, M, Professional attitudes to sex offenders: Implications for multiagency and collaborative working, Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand, 2014, 6 (1), pp. 12-19