Evaluative Attitudes Towards Sexual Offending Against Children: The Development of Self Report Measure Items

The purpose of this study is to develop a measure of evaluative attitudes towards sexual offending against children. The secondary purpose is to explore the relevance of the items I created. I created 60 items that depict sexual offending towards children. Items were administered to inmates from the Missouri Sex Offender Program in Jefferson City, MO. Participants rated items using either one of two different Likert scales of 1-4. The items were refined according to highest variance, creating the Evaluative Attitudes Towards Sexual Offending Against Children scale (EASOC). Mean scores of each offence group were compared to see if those with current hands-on sexual offences have less negative evaluative attitudes about sexual offending. The study will explore if there is a difference in EASOC responses between men with sexual offences against children and men with other offences, and a possible connection between evaluative attitudes and sexual offending against children.