NCJ Number
111232
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: (1988) Pages: 83-90
Date Published
1988
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Five groups of professionals dealing with child sexual abuse cases were surveyed about their beliefs and attitudes about child victim culpability and credibility, offender culpability, crime seriousness, and punishment of child sex offenders.
Abstract
Subjects included 49 police child sex assault investigators, 37 judges, 31 social workers, 5 assistant district attorneys, and 10 assistant public defenders. Results indicated statistically significant differences among professional groups on the issues of victim credibility and punishment, but not on victim and offender culpability and crime seriousness. District attorneys, police, and social workers showed attitudes consistent with their roles and were strong advocates for victims, finding them most credible and least culpable. Public defenders were strong advocates for offenders finding them least culpable and advocating the least punitive response to them. Judges, as mediators within the system, held more neutral attitudes about both victims and offenders than did the other groups. 1 table and 18 references.