| In order to investigate the attitudes of law enforcement officers towards sex offenders and SORNA policies, 63 law enforcement officers from 3 different agencies in the state of Florida completed a survey. A replica survey was used, based on a 43-question questionnaire from Tewksbury and Mustaine (2013), which included the 18-item Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offender Scale (CATSO) (Church, Wakeman, Miller, Clements, & Sun, 2008). Of the 63 participants, 58.7% (n=37) were males and 41.3% (n=26) were females. The years of employment of participants ranged from 1 to 38 years (M= 12.36, SD 8.23). The age of the participants ranges from 23 to 60 (M=40.82; SD=8.23). Based on the results of this study, years of employment and gender showed significant influences on the participants' attitudes. There was a marginal significance between years of employment and the officers' beliefs of social isolation of sex offenders. There was only a marginal significance between the years of employment and the officers' beliefs the sex offenders have a capacity to change. The study found that females had a lesser negative attitude towards sex offenders and SORNA. There was also a marginal significant correlation between the age of the law enforcement officer and deviance. However, there were no other significant correlations between effectiveness of residency restrictions and attitudes of law enforcement officers. Also, no significant correlations between officers' attitudes and perceptions that SORNA policies labels sex offenders. Overall, law enforcement officers had negative attitudes towards sex offenders; however, it becomes less negative for female officers and officers that have been employed for quite some time. In addition, law enforcement officers have a positive attitude toward SORNA, although it has not proved to be effective. |
