Child sexual abuser perceptions of police and social work investigators
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Abstract
The perceptions of child sexual abuse perpetrators about their treatment by social work and police investigators were examined as part of a larger study of child sexual abusers. The perpetrators perceptions of the concern, fairness, and competence of both social work and police investigators were explored;The perpetrators were further rated on masculinity and femininity using the BEM Sex Role Inventory Short form. Matched pairs t-tests were used to analyze the data;In the analysis, the only variable that was statistically significant was fairness, with the perpetrators perceiving police, surprisingly, as being more fair than social workers;While difference in concern only approached statistical significance, the pattern indicated that police may be perceived as more concerned than social workers. With respect to competence, although this comparison only approached statistical significance, social workers were perceived as more competent than police;When gender is considered, the perpetrator who is highly masculine perceived the police higher in concern and fairness and the social worker higher in competence. The highly feminine perpetrator had no statistically significant differences but patterns indicated police were perceived high in concern and social workers higher on fairness and competence;Implications for further research and for training for social workers are also discussed.