Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Seven out of ten sexual assault victims reported that the offender was someone known to them. Yet, a popular misconception among the general public is that sex offenders most often target strangers. To better understand beliefs and misconceptions about sexual offenders, this study seeks to determine the distribution in the general public of who has misconceptions about sex offender perpetration. Next, this study examines a possible consequence of sex offender registries, namely that sex offender registries may cause the general public to be more concerned with those who are unknown rather than being concerned about those who are most likely to offend.

Methods: A mail survey about community safety was administered to residents of an urban county in the Southeastern United States. Respondents (N=631) were divided into a control group that lived at least a mile away from any registered sex offender and an investigational group who lived within one-tenth of a mile of a registered sex offender. Two survey items, measuring respondents' worry about a child being sexually abused by someone they know and worry about a child being sexually abused by a stranger, were transformed into a binary variable identifying those who were more worried about the stranger than someone known to the child (misperception). Independent variables included awareness of a registered sex offender in the neighborhood, having child(ren) in house, being a victim of violent crime, fear of crime measures, and other demographics. Univariate and bivariate statistics and logistic regression determined the likelihood of misperception and the relationship between variables and misperception. A logistic regression was run separately for the control group and investigational group, as having and therefore being aware of the registered sex offender was only possible in the investigational group.

Results: Thirty percent of the sample expressed more concern about a stranger sexually abusing a child, while 56% expressed equal worry of a stranger and someone they knew. The logistic regression for the control group that included children in the house, respondents' sex, marital status, personal victimization and fear of crime measures items was not a significant predictor of misperception (χ2 = 6.06, df(5), p = .30). The model for the investigational group included the same variables plus a binary variable of awareness of a registered sex offender in the neighborhood. This model was significant (χ2 = 37.66, df(6), p<.0001). Significant predictors in the model that were related to increased likelihood of believing the misperception were children in the house (p = .05), awareness of a registered sex offender in the area (p<.01), being married (p<.05) and fear of crime score (p<.001). Personal victimization was inversely related to misperception (p<.05).

Conclusions/Implications The results supported that there does appear to be an unintended consequence to knowing of a registered sex offender in the area. Additionally, macro-level interventions are needed to help better inform the public of the typical perpetrators in the hope that this will reduce the number of child sexual abuse cases a year.