Dissertation
A WINDOW WITH A VIEW: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF PROVIDING SEX OFFENDER TREATMENT IN WASHINGTON STATE
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2017
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/116854
Abstract
When one examines past sex offender research, they find an overabundance of quantitative studies, and an unfortunate deficit of qualitative analyses. What qualitative research is available focuses on the feelings of the public regarding sex offenders or of the perceptions of the offenders themselves. Seemingly less explored, but equally important, are the feelings and perceptions of the individual sex offender treatment providers who are on frontlines every day with these offenders. Using in-depth interviews (n=22) and open-answer surveys (n=38) this study focused specifically on the feelings and perceptions of Washington State community-based sex offender treatment providers in order to (1) explore the experiences of these therapists who work with sex offenders, and ultimately (2) better our understanding of what is needed to hire, develop, and maintain competent, healthy, and resilient sex offender treatment providers. Themes emerged illustrating the benefits and difficulties of working with sex offenders in the community, ethical dilemmas inherent to treating court mandated clients, and factors affecting the recruitment and maintaining of providers in the field. Findings are examined, followed by a discussion of policy implications, study limitations, and suggestions for future research.
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Details
- Title
- A WINDOW WITH A VIEW: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF PROVIDING SEX OFFENDER TREATMENT IN WASHINGTON STATE
- Creators
- Andrea Michele Walker
- Contributors
- Craig Hemmens (Advisor)Melanie-Angela Neuilly (Committee Member)David Makin (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 163
- Identifiers
- 99900581827801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation