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Police officer attitudes to the practicalities of the sex offenders’ register, ViSOR and Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure Scheme in England and Wales

McCartan, Kieran; Hoggett, James; O'Sullivan, Jack

Police officer attitudes to the practicalities of the sex offenders’ register, ViSOR and Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure Scheme in England and Wales Thumbnail


Authors

Kieran McCartan Kieran.Mccartan@uwe.ac.uk
Professor in Sociology and Criminology

Jack O'Sullivan



Abstract

© 2017 National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers. This paper examines police officer understandings of and attitudes to the sex offenders’ register, Violent and Sex Offenders’ Register (ViSOR) and Child Sexual Offender Disclosure Scheme(CSODS) in England and Wales–an under-researched area in the management of sexual offenders in the UK. This research is an adaptation of an American study utilising a mixed-methods approach, combining an online questionnaire survey (N = 227) with a series of semi-structured interviews (N = 27). The study found that police officers, irrespective of role, were generally supportive of the register, ViSOR and CSODS in principle, but they thought that logistics, practicalities, infrastructure, multi-agency collaboration and public understandings had problematic impacts on the scheme in practice. The participants believed that greater investment was needed in terms of time and resource to make the register, ViSOR and CSODS easier to use and access and thus fit for purpose.

Citation

McCartan, K., Hoggett, J., & O'Sullivan, J. (2018). Police officer attitudes to the practicalities of the sex offenders’ register, ViSOR and Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure Scheme in England and Wales. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 24(1), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2017.1411641

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 15, 2017
Online Publication Date Dec 25, 2017
Publication Date Jan 1, 2018
Deposit Date Nov 16, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Sexual Aggression
Print ISSN 1355-2600
Electronic ISSN 1742-6545
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 24
Issue 1
Pages 37-50
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2017.1411641
Keywords Sex offenders’ register; ViSOR; Child Sexual Offender Disclosure Scheme; perpetrators of sexual harm
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/875091
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2017.1411641
Additional Information Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sexual Aggression on 25 December 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13552600.2017.1411641

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