@article{ref1,
title="Do popular attitudinal scales perpetuate negative attitudes towards persons who have sexually offended?",
journal="Journal of sexual aggression",
year="2022",
author="Lowe, Giulia T. and Willis, Gwenda M.",
volume="28",
number="2",
pages="231-243",
abstract="Stigma directed towards persons with convictions for sexual offences and its potentially risk enhancing effects has prompted a growing body of research on public attitudes towards individuals who have sexually offended, including attitude measurement. However, many questions in attitudinal scales use the &quot;sex offender&quot; label, which potentially perpetuates stigma. The current study, which was part of a larger study examining effects of offence-based labels, sought to examine whether responses on an attitudinal scale would differ when person-first language was used instead of the &quot;sex offender&quot; label. Participants (N = 372) were randomly assigned to a label condition or person-first language condition and completed an anonymous online survey that included a popular attitudinal scale. A small, significant effect of labelling was observed: offence-based labels were associated with more negative attitudes than neutral descriptors. Implications for future research are discussed.PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT The current study found that the &quot;sex offender&quot; label was associated with more negative attitudes toward individuals who have sexually offended compared to neutral, person-first language (e.g. &quot;people who have committed crimes of a sexual nature&quot;). Replacing stigmatising labels with person-first language in research and in practice is an important step towards humanising people who have offended and supporting them to live safe, productive, prosocial lives. In research, using person-first language may help improve validity of attitude measurement and remove the possibility of inadvertently reinforcing the very stereotypes researchers seek to address.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1355-2600",
doi="10.1080/13552600.2021.2009050",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2021.2009050"
}