Asher, Amanda (2012) Community Attitudes Towards Reintegration and the Employment of Offenders. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Offender reintegration is an integral component of the Australian Criminal Justice System (CJS). As the success of reintegration relies on community involvement the attitudes of the community are integral to successful outcomes. Previous investigation from a psychological and criminological perspective has provided a theoretical framework for understanding community attitudes towards offender reintegration. It was revealed that gender and fear of crime act as significant variables. Additionally, the type of offence was clearly evidenced as a significant factor with ‘crimes against the person’ and ‘abstract crime’ utilised for this report. To investigate how gender and fear of crime related to community attitudes towards reintegration, 1334 randomly selected Victorian residents completed a questionnaire regarding their attitudes about working with offenders. Based on previous theory and research, it was hypothesised that community attitudes would be influenced by offence type. Gender and fear of crime would influence the level of comfort towards working with an offender, with a significance predicted when working with an offender who had committed a crime against the person. Results revealed that the type of offence was a significant factor in the reported level of comfort however the offence type had no impact when gender and fear of crime were investigated. Both gender and fear of crime significantly predicted the level of comfort towards working with an offender however neither revealed more significance than the other. These findings were congruent with Shaver’s defensive attribution hypothesis, however offence type did not influence these results incongruent with Warr's risk sensitivity model. Fear of crime research is consistent with the results obtained. This study was useful as it obtained information about community attitudes towards reintegration and the employment of offenders. Additionally, it provided insight into the variables impacting community attitudes and the impact this may have upon reintegrative efforts.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Terry Bartholomew |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2025 23:56 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Aug 2025 23:56 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Fear of Crime; Employment of Offenders; Gender; Offenders; Rehabilitation; Reintegration, |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52126 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
