Date of Graduation

Fall 2014

Degree

Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Department

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Committee Chair

Brett Garland

Abstract

With all of the media attention on rape and sexual assaults, the attitudes reporters and social media outlets holds towards rape, rape victims, rape situations and rapists permeate the public's perception and attributes of responsibility. As the rape culture continues to grow stronger, it is becoming increasingly difficult to appropriately place responsibility for the criminal offense and meet the needs of the victims. There has been a gap in the academic research concerning one special group and their attitudes towards women as well as an assessment of belief in common rape myths. This current study will utilize a quantitative approach through the use of a slightly modified, but established survey for the special population studied. This survey will focus on the attitudes of sex offenders in a treatment group in southwest Missouri regarding their views on traditional gender roles and rape myth acceptance given statements containing common rape myths. Results indicate that sex offenders in a treatment group are not drastically deviant in their attitudes towards rape, rapists and rape victims. Contrary to what was hypothesized, participants with rape offenses did not differ in their beliefs than those with non-rape offenses. These results pose more questions than answers about sex offender attitudes, sex offender treatment and practice.

Keywords

rape myth acceptance, rape myth acceptance scale (RMAS), sex offenders, subscales, treatment group

Subject Categories

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Copyright

© Emily Christine Rader

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