Abstract:
University students at one point or another in their careers will have to work with sex offenders or victims. This requires that the students are well prepared to understand and work with those who have been sexually abused as well as the perpetrators. The purpose of this study was to explore university students’ perceptions of sex offenders since it is anticipated that they will work with sex offender population at some point in their careers. Exploring this topic could help the students gain valuable knowledge related to recognizing barriers that may exist when working with sex offenders. This study focused on the causes of sex offences, possible measures to curb rape and liable punishments for the sex offenders. This study found that the major causes of rape were the dressing code, psychological factors, sociological factors and sex aggression. This causes are further discussed in the study in depth. To study university students’ perceptions of sex offenders, descriptive data analysis was used and the obtained data represented by means of tables and figures. From the findings of the study, were no significant differences between participants’ gender regarding their perceptions of sex offenders. Furthermore, the study found that overall, university students’ perceptions are that there are more male sex offenders than female and juvenile sex offenders. The findings of this study suggest that further research is needed in order to explore professionals’ perceptions of sex offenders since there is a likelihood that social works will work with this population at some point in their career
