Reducing stigma and punitive attitudes toward pedophiles through narrative humanization

Harper, CA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3172-0129, Bartels, RM and Hogue, TE, 2018. Reducing stigma and punitive attitudes toward pedophiles through narrative humanization. Sexual Abuse, 30 (5), pp. 533-555. ISSN 1079-0632

Preview

Text PubSub6637_Harper.pdf - Post-print Download (933kB) | Preview

Abstract

Stigmatization and societal punitiveness about pedophilia has a range of potential consequences, such as the social isolation of people with sexual interest in children, and the formation of policies that are not consistent with empirical research findings. Previous research has shown that people with pedophilic sexual interests use societal thinking to self-stigmatize, which in turn may actually serve to increase their risk of committing a sexual offense. In this study, we compared two attitudinal interventions (first-person narrative vs. expert opinion) using a student sample(N = 100). It was hypothesized that both interventions would lead to reductions in stigmatization and punitive attitudes about pedophiles on an explicit (self-report) level, but that only the narrative intervention would lead to reductions of these constructs at the implicit level. Our findings supported both hypotheses. We further discuss the role of narrative humanization in this area, and offer suggestions for further research based upon the theoretical and methodological implications of the findings.

Item Type:	Journal article
Alternative Title:	Narratives and pedophilia judgments [running head]
Publication Title:	Sexual Abuse
Creators:	Harper, C.A., Bartels, R.M. and Hogue, T.E.
Publisher:	Sage
Date:	2018
Volume:	30
Number:	5
ISSN:	1079-0632
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/1079063216681561 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	18 Nov 2016 13:54
Last Modified:	04 Jan 2019 14:19
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29166

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads