Anonymity for people accused of sex offences? Male opinions sought please

[Pastalover]

Hello,
As part of my Masters in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Investigation I am writing a dissertation on whether the public feel that defendants accused (not yet convicted) of sex offences should be granted anonymity.
Anyone over 18 can participate and data will be kept confidential. I appreciate it is a sensitive subject so would be very grateful for any help with this. I particularly need male viewpoints!
www.surveymonkey.com/s/5R7H9KT
Many thanks.

I agree with previous posts. I've completed it but found it tricky to answer some questions as there's a world of difference in rape of a child to taking a photo up a woman's skirt on a drunken night out. So my answers are neutral because I couldn't say one way or another.

But, sadly sex offenders do sometimes (often?) have a history and often start their offending 'careers' with minor offences (eg flashing) and end up with more serious crimes. Perhaps if we were to know these peoples identity early on, then we could create awareness and stop them in their tracks. Or maybe by knowing them it will create issues with them truly being rehabilitated if that's even possible..

Tricky one...

What are rape myths...? I've had a long day with a little baby and need things spelling out..

Yep see what you mean, I guess the way I was looking at it was that the survey questions are not referring to rapists specifically but to sex offenders in general which can cover a very wide range of "offences".
So in that sense - yes - it is asking about misconceptions/myths surrounding sex offenders.
The part of the survey without the "none of the above/don't know" options is a pre-existing validated questionnaire that I used for comparison with anonymity (the anonymity questions did have that option).

Sex offenders have difficulty making friends even if they try real hard

Are you sure you're a Masters student? Standards have slipped. s'all I can say.

I though that too Eminor. I suppose respondents could be offered feedback to explain that actually rapists and abusers more often than not don't appear to be that different to the rest of society. That would probably require resources that the OP doesn't have access to tho'

Pinky - Meow! A spelling mistake is a pretty easy thing to miss when you've proof read a survey a dozen times!

Done but I found these questions difficult to answer as the wording 'sex offender' is used for someone who has raped a woman as well as a guy who has send a few inappropriate texts to a 15yo. Both are not acceptable but surely the answers to the questions in the survey will be quite different.

Actually thinking about it, the wording if the questions are really about sex offender=rapist rather than inappropriate touching/text/whatever.
Otherwise why on earth would you ask if they have a higher sex drive or aren't married?

Did the survey but didn't like it. The research was supposed to be about anonymity of those accused of sex offences - something I feel quite strongly about - especially as the mother of a boy - and a gullible one at that.

It was more about sex offenders generally and I didn't see what you were getting at. Also as so many have said the category was too wide - this is part of the problem.

So what did you want to know? whether we think sex offenders are likely to be Married? How can that impact on whether or not we believe in the same treatment for accused and accuser?

A poor survey I'm afraid - on a serious subject

Thank you for taking the time to do the survey and to share your thoughts, I may use some of the feedback in my critique/discussion for future research.

For anyone considering doing it, the aim of the survey is explained in the Participant information sheet at the beginning and the information in this does answer some of the points raised above, but I am not able to give more detail whilst the survey is still open.
Thanks

you canna prove date rape and the system has no answers. Nor have I

Surveys like this often don't explicitly tell you what hypothesis they are testing ... it tends to screw up the results if you do. Good luck with the project OP.