ABSTRACT

“Criminals,” particularly sex offenders, are thought of as an indistinguishable, homogenous group by society, despite the variety of offenses they commit, with differing levels of severity, impact, and outcome. Perceptions of criminal behavior also fail to recognize that everyone engages in norm-violating/unlawful/immoral behavior at one time or another. This view of offending, that it is something “other” dangerous people do, combined with the tendency to generalize across varied behaviors and experiences, has resulted in the construct of the sex offender as a “monster.” This has implications for how sex offenders are treated at each stage of the criminal justice process resulting in a problematic approach to sex offenders, one that is not centered on evidence and is, ultimately, not in anyone’s best interests. Specifically, the dialogue results in: lower confession rates, lower conviction rates, ineffective treatment/rehabilitation, and a cycle of violence that causes severe harm within society, as a whole. This paper will address each stage (e.g., investigative interviewing, sentencing, etc.), showing the ways that social constructions have had an adverse effect, how the treatment of sex offenders at each stage is contrary to best practise/the evidence, and will provide recommendations for future research and policy decisions that are in line with the evidence base.

摘要

“罪犯”，尤其是性犯罪者，被社会视为一个难以区分的同质群体，尽管他们犯下的罪行多种多样，严重程度、影响和结果也各不相同。对犯罪行为的看法也未能认识到每个人有时从事违反规范/非法/不道德的行为。这种对犯罪的看法，认为这是“其他”危险的人所做的事情，再加上对各种行为和经历进行概括的倾向，导致将性犯罪者视为“怪物”。这对在刑事司法程序的每个阶段如何对待性犯罪者产生影响，从而导致对性犯罪者采取有问题的方法，这种方法不以证据为中心，最终不符合任何人的最佳利益。具体而言，对话导致：认罪率降低、定罪率降低、治疗/康复无效，以及对整个社会造成严重伤害的暴力循环。本文将讨论每个阶段（例如，调查性访谈、量刑等），