Essay Example on Public Perception on Adult Male Offenders Reintegrating Into Society

Few researchers are working in the area of the public attitude toward adult male sex offenders. The research done does not show that the opinion of the general public towards the sex offenders is negative and there are misconceptions held about sex offenders (Bogle, 2006). When the people contains such kind of views against the sex offenders they are less likely to fit into the society, and thus they may be more danger of them re-offending. Greater public understanding of adult male sex offenders who re-enter the society may facilitate the creation of substantial social incentives, or increasing easy monitoring of ex-offenders may help to curb recidivism (Bogle, 2006). The negative attitude towards these people may make it even hard for the individuals who work with them in a therapeutic capacity to help rehabilitate these individuals. If the jailers and the therapist are biased against these male sex offenders, it is unlikely they will be able to help them reform. Therefore, it is in the interest of the society to understand the nature of attitude toward adult male sex offenders so that attempts can be made to enhance reintegration with the aim of reducing recidivism (Bogle, 2006). Until today, no valid instrument has been found to accurately measure the attitude of the public towards the male sex offenders. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to develop ways that will help to regulate the stigma associated with the adult male sex offenders.

The release of individuals from jail to societies is a practice that has faced many challenges and one which evokes public concerns (Bumby et al. (2007). As a result, prisoner re-entry has become the focus of some problem-solving initiatives at the national and local levels. Facilitating successful reentry is always a challenge (Bumby et al. (2007). Many people tend to believe that once a person has committed a sexual offense, he will still be a sex offender. It suggests that once a man commits a sexual assault, he is likely to commit more sex offenses in the future. From research done, sex offender recidivism rates are not higher than those recidivism rates of other offenders ((Bumby et al. (2007). The society response to adult male offenders is very negative that it makes finding simple solutions to this complex problem very difficult.

Based on the concept that male sex offenders are the particular type of dangerous offenders who are likely to commit the crime again, one thing that the jurisdiction has done is to try and keep track of and notify the society of the whereabouts of the sex offenders (Doob& Gartner, 2013). These approaches are tendentious in the concept that male sex offenders have a high likelihood of sexually harassing another person again. For the policies set to be effective the men responsible for sexual offenses would have to be on the register or subject to community notifications. The public views in the act of notifying them as a practice that serves the citizens by protecting them from sexual offenders. They believe that this is a reactive measure by alerting the neighborhood and encouraging the families to stay alert and be cautious. I think that this is the false sense of security because as a matter of fact, almost all the offenses committed by offenders who are close to the victims and who the victims trust. The primary source of threat to loved ones comes from within the circle. In countries like the United States and Canada, once signed up on NSOR the offender must renew his registration. This practice by itself acts as a constant reminder that ones crime had repercussion.

Policy implementation theories suggest some factors to examine when assessing the level to which programs or policies are practically applied. Government policies rely on a lay citizen-professional partnership to implement policies and programs in welfare reforms (Doob& Gartner, 2013)

. If the citizen does not access the male sex offenders information, then the residents will have little or no knowledge of whom they should be monitoring informally. Sex offenses have generated massive publicity due to their offensive nature and the invoked fear among the citizens. Such celebrated cases of sexual crime involve rape of children, sexual assaults, child abduction and sexual abuse (Tewksbury & Connor, 2012). When the sexual offenses in public, they lead to stigmatization of the public perception and mindset to the male reproductive offenders in an extremely negative way. The understanding of sex crimes and the sexual offenders portrayed by the media only intensifies the view of the public disregarding the current and accurate data (Duncan, 2012). As a result, many policies and restrictions for the sex offenders have been put in place to the public. Even though new restrictive are made, the citizens continue to possess undesirable and inaccurate beliefs about adult male sex offenders.

The media has also played a significant role on how the public view the adult male sex offenders. The media represents one of the primary sources of general information about sexual offenses (Tewksbury & Connor, 2012). However, the press aims at sensationalizing sexual crimes and sexual offenders through its focus on exceptional cases, and this contributes to inaccurate representation of the adult male sex offenders (Duncan, 2012). This results in the community having a negative attitude towards the release of any sex offender which creates barriers to community reentry and promote ill-informed legislation. The media should be enlisted as a partner in educating the public about sexual abuse through giving them accurate and research-based information about sexual offenses and victimization. The media is influential in shaping the public opinion which profoundly affects the development of social policy in the area of the general view on adult male sex offenders (Tewksbury & Connor, 2012)

. Research has shown that exposure to accurate information can facilitate attitudinal changes about most of the critical social issues the society is facing today.

Hypothesis

Public education to increase public awareness and providing accurate information about adult male sex offenders is central to successful prevention and management effort. Sharing information about who the offenders are and how they should be managed will help to dispel the commonly held myth and equip then public to better respond to and deal with the issue of sex offending in the communities. Educating the societies on the myths can also provide them to increase their self-protection efforts, improve their confidence on the existing sex offender management efforts in communities and eliminate the critical barriers for offenders. As in the case with correctional strategies, sex offenders management practices should be guided by the evidence-based research as well as those methods that are promising regarding impact and effectiveness. Jurisdiction should take care to objectively assess their policies and practices to evaluate the extent to which they result in positive outcome.

Stakeholders of this issue must work together to ensure that their respective resources strategies and capabilities are brought to bear on this problem. The corporate involvement by the justice system, treatment providers, victim advocacy organizations and the members of the public is central to a comprehensive approach to sex offender management. Sex management offender teams should ensure that all the relevant parties are actively contributing to the efforts and that a commitment to ongoing collaboration is shared. Therefore the key stakeholders who represent the main components of this approach should take active steps in educating the public about the nature of sexual victimization and what the rights of the people are in these cases. They should also explain how effective management strategies can increase community safety and prevent further victimization and the role the public has in monitoring adult male sex offenders and promoting the offenders success.

Sex offenders cause a level of harm that not only damages the physical and psychological health of those directly involved but also impacts on many others including friends and family. From the study we can hypothesize that the adult male sex offenders who offend against children would produce the most fear; consequently, the most feared offenders would be rated as the most requiring registration. As part of the survey, participants answered questions about sex offenders and the agreement with the requirements of certification for the offenders convicted of sexual assault. Research shows that all types of sexual offenders elicited some fear from the respondent and the anxiety was related to support of registration requirements.

References

Bogle, B. (n.d.) (2006). Development of Sex Offender Attitude Scale. Development of Sex Offender Attitude Scale, 2-18. Retrieved from http://www.ncur20.com (Bogle, 2006)

Bumby, K., Talbot, T., & Carter, M. (2007). Managing Challenges of Sex Offender Reentry. Center of Sex Offender Management, 1-15. Retrieved from http://www.csom.org (Bumby et al. (2007)

Doob, A. N., & Gartner, R. (2013). Summaries of Research on Sex Offenders. Criminological Highlights, 2-28. Retrieved from http://criminology.utoronto.ca (Doob& Gartner, 2013)

Duncan, J. (2012). Public Perceptions Regarding Sex Offenders and Sex Offender

Management. Electronic Thesis and Dissertations, 64-79. Retrieved from http://dc.etsu.edu (Duncan, 2012)

Tewksbury, R., & Connor, D. P. (2012). Incarcerated Sex Offenders' Perceptions of Family Relationships: Previous Experiences and Future Expectations. Western Criminology Review, 25-35. Retrieved from http://www.westerncriminology.org (Tewksbury & Connor, 2012)