1.  Craig A. Harper University of Lincoln PsyPAG Annual Conference – Lancaster University – 18 th July 2013

2.  Background and rationale  Methodology  Key Results  Implications for public attitudes/responses to sexual crime, reintegration of ex-offenders, and public policy

3.  Hypodermic injection vs. the active audience  ‘Seeking out the sex fiend’ (Soothill and Walby, 1991)  Corporate motivations in press reporting (Greer, 2003)

5.  Access to community rehabilitation o Brown (1999) – ‘not in my backyard’  Attitudes as a hindrance to desistance o Willis, Levenson and Ward (2010)  The Pygmalion Effect o Maruna et al. (2001; 2009)

6. PopulationATS Scores Sex offenders99.1 Psychologists/Probation90.7 Prison officers (involved in treatment) 80 Prison officers (not involved in treatment) 71.5 Police officers62.6 General public (McAlindon & Shewan, 2004) 55-59 Scores can range from 0-144 (high scores indicate more positive attitudes) Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders by Population (from Hogue, 1993)

7.  Newspaper articles from 8 national newspapers o Sexual crimes Rape, Sexual Assault, Child Molestation o Violent crimes Murder, Manslaughter, ABH, GBH o Acquisitive crimes Theft, Burglary, Robbery  Immigrant groups as control  Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Analysis (LIWC) ( Pennebaker et al., 2007)

8. Sex Offenders2523493278 Violent Offenders2919692341118325 Acquisitive Offenders91286182144 Immigrant Groups241469152127

9.  9x over-representation of sexual crime within the sample of press articles than in official crime statistics  2.4x over-representation of violent crime within the sample of press articles than in official crime statistics  4.5x under-representation of acquisitive crime within the sample of press articles than in official crime statistics Study NProjected NProjected %Actual NActual % Sex Offenders 8124318%52,1782% Violent Offenders 30090066%747,44827% Acquisitive Offenders 7321416%2,013,24172%

10.  Negative emotions (p<0.001) o Sex Offenders – Violent Offenders (p=0.07, ns) o Sex Offenders – Acquisitive Offenders (p<0.001) o Sex Offenders – Immigrant Groups (p<0.001) Social effects of prevalence misrepresentation?

11.  Anger-related words (p<0.001) o Sex Offenders – Violent Offenders (p<0.05) o Sex Offenders – Acquisitive Offenders (p<0.001) o Sex Offenders – Immigrant Groups (p<0.001) Exaggerated social effects of prevalence misrepresentation?

12.  Four types of ‘sex offender’: o Monsters, beasts and perverts o Those in positions of trust o Celebrities o Others (“Man convicted of…” or link to offender-victim relationship).

13.  Stranger danger and community notification  Reintegration and desistance from crime

14. Negative Media Content Over- Representation Hostile Public Attitudes at the Local Level Ex-Offender Identity (The Pygmalion Effect) Impaired Reintegration & Desistance Processes

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