Section A - attitudes

Question 1

4 section

Answer 1

Introduce desistance
Labelling, scripts, denial and minimisation in decisive momentum
Stigmatization in rehabilitation
Barriers to employment and housing in re-entry

Question 2

What points are you going to make in the intro?

Question 3

What points are you going to make when talking about attitudes impacting decisive momentum?

Answer 3

1. Attitudes towards those who are sexually convicted are highly negative, being the most despised criminal population (Olver and Barlett) despite criminal career patterns not being more violent or frequent in comparison to those who have not been sexually convicted (Narvey et al, 2025)
2. One large scale survey found only 30% of population believe that treatment can work (McAlinden and RRS, 2007) , supported by other studies within public perception as those sexually convicted as ‘chronic recidivists’ (Macini and Mears, 2010)
3. This impacts the rehabilitation process, especially within decisive momentum, as individuals who internalise the label of ‘sex offender’ feel cannot establish themselves in other ways (Wolf, 2021), which reinforces condemnation scripts and a lack of crystallization -> golem effect where offending is inevitable (Babad, 1982)
4. In support of GLM, this suggests reasons for offending as a resort, due to a lack of primary goods such as agency and knowledge to attain pro-social goals, and prompts a strength-based approach opposed to risk-need-responsivity framework
5. These public attitudes can lead to mechanisms such as denial and minimisation of offences, although public and professional attitudes say this is suggestive of increased reoffending rates, they decrease recidivism risk with resistance strategies being consistent with reintegrative shame, where the act and not the person face disapproval
6. It is evident that decisive momentum is more concerned with individual’s readiness to change and that public attitudes are more likely to be impactful within re-entry phase of ITDSO, however professional attitudes can influence the rehabilitation process