Attitudes towards persons who feel sexually attracted to children

Both psychologist and police officers play an important role in treatment of child sex offenders and people with pedophilia.

The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes held by police trainees and psychology students towards people with pedophilia that have never committed a sexual offence. It is hypothesized that all participants will hold a negative attitude towards people with pedophilia, but the attitudes of psychology students will be more positive compared to police trainees. Attitudes will also be explored based on various background items, such as participants gender, age and familiarity with sex offenders. To accomplish this an online survey will be sent out to both psychology students and police trainees in Norway. Participants will be contacted in cooperation with their place of studies. The survey will consist of self-report scales, the Stigma Inventory and the Therapy motivation scale, and a vignette describing an individual with pedophila who has not committed a sex crime. All data will be gathered using Nettskjema, an online survey software. The survey will be administered in Norwegian.

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