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Abstract

Above its contributions to criminal justice, research around paedophile hunting has concentrated on the plethora of legal and ethical consequences associated with it, including physical and psychological harm towards targets and their social connections, exacerbated by high levels of public engagement and support for paedophile hunters’ stigmatising online content. The present study aims to investigate the level of support afforded to paedophile hunting groups (PHGs), and to critically analyse how support may be underpinned by two factors emergent from the literature as motivations for engaging in paedophile hunting – holding negative attitudes towards their targets and lacking confidence in the effectiveness of the criminal justice system (CJS). Quantitative data was collected from 105 British participants who completed an online survey measuring their support for PHGs and their tactics; their attitudes towards child sex offenders (CSOs), their stereotypes, punishment and rehabilitation; and their confidence in the effectiveness of different criminal justice agencies. Descriptive statistics illuminated less support than expected - most participants were unsupportive of PHGs and their different tactics, but were supportive of formal collaboration between these groups and the CJS. Correlational analyses demonstrated that holding negative attitudes towards CSOs had medium-to large, positive impacts on support for PHGs and their tactics, and a small impact on support for formal collaboration. Comparatively, confidence in CJS effectiveness had small, negative impacts on support for PHGs and their doxing and false imprisonment tactics, but not for formal collaboration or other, more harmful tactics. Thus, this paper posits that engagement and support for PHGs can be reduced by targeting educational intervention to improve negative attitudes towards CSOs, their treatment, punishment and stereotypes, and to a lesser extent, confidence in criminal justice effectiveness. However, further research is required to identify which specific attitudinal dimensions to target, and to map support for paedophile hunting globally across larger, more demographically representative samples.

Course: Criminal Justice - MSc - C2681F

Date Deposited: 2023-05-03

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14123.html