Student Attitudes Toward Sex Offender Policies: Are There Differences Between Students Who Complete A Sex Crimes Course And Other Students?
Beth A. Wiersma, Syed Afzal Hossain

Abstract
Research has assessed the attitudes of the general public and professionals in the criminal justice field toward sex offender policies including registration, community notification, residency restrictions and electronic monitoring. Research focusing on student attitudes toward these policies is lacking. The present study seeks to partially fill that void and contributes to the literature on college student attitudes and more specifically toward sex offender policies. The attitudes of students who completed a sex crimes course are compared with students completing introductory criminal justice and psychology courses. Students expressed overwhelming support for some of these policies and significant differences were found between the groups for electronically monitoring sex offenders and sex offenders receiving the maximum penalties allowed by law.

Full Text: PDF