Offense Characteristics and Considerations for Removal from the North Carolina Public Sex Offender Registry 

Christina Foster, Melisa Glatte, Alvin Malesky, & Chris PetersWestern Carolina University

Introduction• In North Carolina, an individual convicted of a sexual

offense is required to register with the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry through their county sheriff and is placed on the statewide public registry (Cooper, 2011). Depending on the offense, an individual can petition the court to be removed from the registry after ten years.

• Frei (2008) found that participants held less punitive view about female sex offenders than male sex offenders due to the influence of the media.

• Wolfe (2008) found that the sex of the subject and the sex of the offender impacted the view of university students’ perception on the severity of punishment to be implemented on the sex offender. Male participants were less punitive than female participants. Although both male and female participants were more punitive towards male offenders than female offenders, males were significantly more punitive toward male offenders than female offenders.

• The Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders Scale (CATSCO Scale), was designed to measure public opinions of sex offenders (Church et al., 2008).

Method ContinuedMeasures:• The survey was 27 questions long, took approximately five

minutes to complete, and included:• Demographic questions• Opinion questions concerning a legal vignette • 18 CATSCO Scale questions

Procedures:• Completed an anonymous online questionnaire via

Qualtrics1.• Completed opinion-based questions dealing with how the

sex of the victim, sex of the offender, and the relationship between the victim and offender impact decisions on removal from the registry.

Implications• Eligibility for release from the registry would be problematic

if left to the discretion of the general public via jury decision.• Male sex offenders will likely have a harder time making their

case to come off the registry than it will be for female sex offenders.

Results•A three-way between-group analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact of sex of perpetrator, sex of victim, and type of relationship between perpetrator and victim (e.g., family member, student, stranger) on participants’ decision to remove the perpetrator from the sex offender registry. There was a statistically significant main effect for sex of the perpetrator, F(1, 386)=21.12, p<.001. Participants were significantly more likely to release the perpetrator from the registry if the perpetrator were female (M = 2.64, SD = .45) than if the perpetrator were male (M = 5.60, SD = .46). The main effect for sex of the victim, F(1, 386)=1.96, p=.163 and type of relationship between perpetrator and victim, F(2, 386)=1.06, p=.347 were not statistically significance.

•In addition, analysis revealed a statistically significant interaction effect between sex of victim and type of relationship between perpetrator and victim, F(2, 386)=8.44, p<.001. Participants were significantly more reluctant to remove the offender from the registry when the victim was a male family member (M=5.65, SD=0.85) than when the victim was a male student (M=1.67, SD=0.83, p=.001). Furthermore participants were more willing to remove the offender from the registry when the victim was a female family member (M=3.05, SD=0.78) than when the victim were a female student (M=5.25, SD=0.85, p=0.048) or female stranger (M=5.39, SD=0.75, p=0.032).

Research Question• Does the sex of the victim, sex of the offender, and the

relationship between the victim and offender influence the participants’ decisions regarding removal of the offender from the registry?

MethodParticipants• Participants were students enrolled in a psychology or a

criminal justice course at a mid-size regional university in the Southeastern U.S.

• The survey included:• 430 Participants: (122 Male, 308 Female)• Participants ranged in age from 18 to 44 (M=3.86,

SD=4.045).• Race identification included 86.3% Caucasian

students.

Discussion• Most of the participants were unwilling to release the

perpetrators from the registry even though the hypothetical perpetrators were eligible for release from the registry.

• Participants were more comfortable in removing female sex offenders from the NC Sex Offender Registry than removing male sex offenders, even though the hypothetical offenders were identical except for their sex.

• Participants were more likely to keep an offender on the registry, regardless of sex, if the perpetrator victimized a male family member than a male student.

• Additionally, participants were more confident in removing an offender from the registry when the victim was a female family member than when the victim were a female student or female stranger.

References• 1 An anonymous web based research surveying software

system.• Church, W., Wakeman, E., Miller, S., Clements, C., & Sun, F.

(2008). The community attitudes toward sex offenders scale: The development of a psychometric assessment instrument. Research of Social Work Practices, 18(3).

• Cooper, R. The North Carolina sex offender & public protection registration programs. Retrieved Jan. 5, 2011, from http://www.ncdoj.gov

• Frei, A. (2008) Media consideration of sex offenders: How community response shapes a gendered perspective. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 52(5), 495-498.

• Wolfe, S., & Higgins, G. (2008). College students’ punishment perceptions of online solicitation of children for sex. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 33(2), 193-208.