Year: 2018
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Although mental illness is common in the sex offender population, it has never been examined how evidence of such may influence societal perception. In comparison to the non-sex offender population, it was hypothesized that participants would consider mental illness less mitigating for sex offenders, would be less likely to support the mental health treatment of sex offenders while incarcerated, and would consider certain mental illnesses (schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders) as particularly aggravating for this group of offenders. Respondents were asked to read a short vignette and then respond to a series of questions about culpability, sentencing decisions, and mental health treatment. Results from this study suggest that the public is less likely to consider mental illness as a mitigating factor in the sex offender population, in turn believing they should receive harsher prison sentences and are less deserving of alternatives to incarceration in comparison to non-sex offenders with identical symptomatology. However, mental illnesses considered especially dangerous were not particularly aggravating in the sex offender population. Future directions may examine how these findings differ based on various sex offenses.
Author: Keely A Bartram
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2809825400