Craig A Harper
Biographic Data
| ID | 111170 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Craig A Harper |
| GIVEN NAMES | Craig A |
| FAMILY NAME | Harper |
| SIGNATURE | HARPER C A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Nottingham Trent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3172-0129 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 40 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Sexual Crime and Community Reintegration
Misrepresenting the “MAP” Literature Does Little to Advance Child Abuse Prevention: A Critical Commentary and Response to Farmer, Salter, and Woodlock
In a recent paper published in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse , Farmer et al. purport to have critically examined the academic use of the term “Minor Attracted Persons” (MAPs) in published social science research. In the paper, their stated aims are to “understand how this body of scholarship defines and uses the terminology of MAP, conceptualizes sexual interest in minors, and its relationship with child sex offending, and the implications for child …
Understanding the use of child-related sexual fantasy and fictional sexual materials by people who are attracted to children
Sexual frustration is a potentially important treatment need for people who are attracted to children, but little is known about how such individuals seek to address this. In this paper, we report two studies with large community-based samples (Study 1 N = 265; Study 2 N = 733) providing insights into the scale and correlates of the use of these fictional sexual materials (FSM) in this community. Our data show that sexual fantasising and FSM use …
Development and validation of a measure of attitudes towards sex doll ownership
Sex dolls are beginning to become more mainstream, both in the public’s consciousness and in academic research. However, there is no current systematic examination of public attitudes toward sex dolls within the peer-reviewed literature, which represents a barrier to the efficient study of this topic. In this paper, we report the development and validation of such a measure. Using an international public sample, we found that Sex Doll Ownership A…
The interaction between perceived chronological age and physical sexual development in attractiveness judgements made by people who are attracted to children
The measurement of sexual attraction patterns has significance in relation to the assessment and treatment of people who may have caused sexual harm. However, it is also important to understand the drivers of sexual attractions within the community. In recent times there has been an increased level of interest in people with attractions to children, but minimal attention has been paid to fully understand how different indicators of age might infl…
Do Concepts Creep to the Left and the Right? Evidence for Ideologically Salient Concept Breadth Judgments Across the Political Spectrum
Concept creep explains how established social concepts expand to incorporate new phenomena, with such expansions fundamentally changing conceptual definitions and contributing to a loss of a shared social understanding. However, the existing work has focused on concept creep within a small number of categories that are typically more salient for those on the political left. In this work, we examined whether concept creep is a predominantly leftis…
The ‘Perfect’ PARTNER: Understanding the Lived Experiences of Men Who Own Sex Dolls
The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly discussed phenomenon in recent years, with legal scholars and legislators calling for increased regulation and criminalization of such articles. However, our knowledge of sex doll ownership is lacking, and the peer-reviewed literature is especially sparse on detailed phenomenological analyses of the motivations of sex doll owners and their experiences of owning a doll. In this study, we interv…
Low system justification drives ideological differences in joke perception: A critical commentary and re-analysis of Baltiansky et al. (2021)
A recent study by Baltiansky et al. (2021), which was published in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research tested two hypotheses related to system justification and the perception of stereotypical humor. They reported to have found evidence for a cross-over interaction, with judgments of jokes being contingent on a combination of the social status of the targets of jokes and raters’ system justification motivations. Here, we discuss the or…
Celebrity status, sex, and variation in psychopathy predicts judgements of and proclivity to generate and distribute deepfake pornography
Humanizing Pedophilia as Stigma Reduction: A Large-Scale Intervention Study
The stigmatization of people with pedophilic sexual interests is a topic of growing academic and professional consideration, owing to its potential role in moderating pedophiles’ emotional well-being, and motivation and engagement in child abuse prevention schemes. Thus, improving attitudes and reducing stigmatization toward this group is of paramount importance. Prior research has suggested that narrative humanization—presenting personal stories…
Ideological responses to the breaking of Covid-19 social distancing recommendations
COVID-19 has plagued the globe since January 2020, infecting millions and claiming the lives of several hundreds of thousands (at the time of writing). Despite this, many individuals have ignored public health guidance and continued to socialize in groups. Emergent work has highlighted the potential role that ideology plays in such behavior, and judgements of it. In response to this contemporary cultural phenomenon, we tested whether judgements o…
Exploring the Psychological Characteristics and Risk-related Cognitions of Individuals Who Own Sex Dolls
The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly controversial social issue over the last five to ten years, with many in society (and academia) calling for the criminalization of such dolls. At the root of these calls is the implicit (and often explicit) assumption that sex doll ownership contributes to increases in negative social attitudes toward women, and sexual offense risk among doll owners. However, there are yet to be any empirical …
Exploring the Ownership of Child-Like Sex Dolls
There is a fervent social debate ongoing that relates to the ownership of child-like sex dolls. On the one hand, some proponents of dolls suggest that they offer a safe sexual outlet for minor-attracted people (MAPs) and could be used in efforts to prevent the sexual abuse of children. On the other side of the debate, child-like dolls are seen as articles that sexualize children, encourage deviant fantasies, and increase offending risk. To date, …
Primary Health Professionals’ Beliefs, Experiences, and Willingness to Treat Minor-Attracted Persons
There is a desire and need among minor-attracted persons (MAPs) to access support within the community, and this often begins with an approach to healthcare providers working in general medical/mental health settings. However, little is known about the experiences of these non-specialist professionals in relation to their beliefs, knowledge, and decision-making processes when working with patients who disclose sexual attractions to children. Usin…
Loss and Assimilation: Lived Experiences of Brexit for British Citizens Living in Luxembourg
Inconsistent political realities are associated with mental health issues such as hopelessness, anxiety, and depression. The psychological impact of Brexit is clearly an important and timely issue, but hitherto has been understudied. This study uses a critical realist approach to qualitatively explore the lived experiences of British citizens living in Luxembourg during the Brexit era. The study reports on semi-structured interviews conducted wit…
Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the Covid-19 pandemic
In the current context of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), health professionals are working with social scientists to inform government policy on how to slow the spread of the virus. An increasing amount of social scientific research has looked at the role of public message framing, for instance, but few studies have thus far examined the role of individual differences in emotional and personality-based variables in pre…
Functional Fear Predicts Public Health Compliance in the Covid-19 Pandemic
In the current context of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), health professionals are working with social scientists to inform government policy on how to slow the spread of the virus. An increasing amount of social scientific research has looked at the role of public message framing, for instance, but few studies have thus far examined the role of individual differences in emotional and personality-based variables in pre…
The Internalization of Social Stigma Among Minor-Attracted Persons: Implications for Treatment
In this article, we sought to build on existing stigmatization research by examining the extent to which internalized stigmatization (i.e., the personal adoption and incorporation of social views, operationalized as thought suppression—an avoidant coping strategy—and low psychological well-being) among minor-attracted persons (MAPs) may impact upon help-seeking behaviors and their avoidance of children. We adopted a cross-sectional anonymous surv…
Non-Consensual Image-based Sexual Offending: Bridging Legal and Psychological Perspectives
Are Categorical Deniers Different? Understanding Demographic, Personality, and Psychological Differences between Denying and Admitting Individuals with Sexual Convictions
The purpose of this study was to establish whether there were demographic, personality, or psychological differences between a sample of 40 incarcerated sex offenders in categorical denial and 37 sex offenders admitting responsibility in an Australian minimum-security unit. Categorical deniers had lower IQs, were older, and were more likely to be child molesters. Criminogenically, there were no differences between categorical deniers and those wh…
The role of intuitive moral foundations in Britain's vote on EU membership
In June 2016, British voters took part in a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union (EU). By a margin of 52% to 48%, they voted to leave. Studies have demonstrated that fixed demographic factors were the best predictors of voting intentions in either direction, or that “leave” voters were driven by perceived threats from immigration. In this paper, we examine the role of moral intuitions in referendum voting intentions…
The Emotional Representation of Sexual Crime in the National British Press
The relationships between the media, public attitudes, and crime are complex, with evidence suggesting that public interaction with these press reports influencing wider social and political attitudes. Here, 543 articles from 8 of the 10 most-read British national newspapers were examined in terms of their representativeness of crime rates, and their linguistic properties. Results include a 9:1 representation of sexual crime, a 2.5:1 representati…
A Prototype-Willingness Model of Sexual Crime Discourse in England and Wales
Dual-process models of decision making assume that we process information using two distinct ‘systems’: a deliberate and analytical system, and an intuitive system. This article uses 148 UK press articles about sexual crime to apply one such model – the ‘prototype-willingness’ model – to the study of social discourses about sexual crime in England and Wales. A small number of cases were significantly over-represented within the article sample (fo…
Counterblast: Punitive P ayne, Justice Campaigns, and Popular Punitivism – Where Next for ‘Public Criminology
This paper looks at the increasing power of the British press in relation to (in)forming political responses to crime. Drawing on the example of the Sun Justice campaign, we examine the trend of the celebrification of news and the use of emotional language in relation to sexual offending. We argue that criminologists should be more forceful in their response to misrepresentative press reporting about crime, and unashamedly promote empirical findi…
Exploring the Psychological Characteristics and Risk-related Cognitions of Individuals Who Own Sex Dolls
The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly controversial social issue over the last five to ten years, with many in society (and academia) calling for the criminalization of such dolls. At the root of these calls is the implicit (and often explicit) assumption that sex doll ownership contributes to increases in negative social attitudes toward women, and sexual offense risk among doll owners. However, there are yet to be any empirical …
The role of intuitive moral foundations in Britain's vote on EU membership
In June 2016, British voters took part in a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union (EU). By a margin of 52% to 48%, they voted to leave. Studies have demonstrated that fixed demographic factors were the best predictors of voting intentions in either direction, or that “leave” voters were driven by perceived threats from immigration. In this paper, we examine the role of moral intuitions in referendum voting intentions…
The Internalization of Social Stigma Among Minor-Attracted Persons: Implications for Treatment
In this article, we sought to build on existing stigmatization research by examining the extent to which internalized stigmatization (i.e., the personal adoption and incorporation of social views, operationalized as thought suppression—an avoidant coping strategy—and low psychological well-being) among minor-attracted persons (MAPs) may impact upon help-seeking behaviors and their avoidance of children. We adopted a cross-sectional anonymous surv…
Primary Health Professionals’ Beliefs, Experiences, and Willingness to Treat Minor-Attracted Persons
There is a desire and need among minor-attracted persons (MAPs) to access support within the community, and this often begins with an approach to healthcare providers working in general medical/mental health settings. However, little is known about the experiences of these non-specialist professionals in relation to their beliefs, knowledge, and decision-making processes when working with patients who disclose sexual attractions to children. Usin…
The ‘Perfect’ PARTNER: Understanding the Lived Experiences of Men Who Own Sex Dolls
The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly discussed phenomenon in recent years, with legal scholars and legislators calling for increased regulation and criminalization of such articles. However, our knowledge of sex doll ownership is lacking, and the peer-reviewed literature is especially sparse on detailed phenomenological analyses of the motivations of sex doll owners and their experiences of owning a doll. In this study, we interv…
The Emotional Representation of Sexual Crime in the National British Press
The relationships between the media, public attitudes, and crime are complex, with evidence suggesting that public interaction with these press reports influencing wider social and political attitudes. Here, 543 articles from 8 of the 10 most-read British national newspapers were examined in terms of their representativeness of crime rates, and their linguistic properties. Results include a 9:1 representation of sexual crime, a 2.5:1 representati…
Ideological responses to the breaking of Covid-19 social distancing recommendations
COVID-19 has plagued the globe since January 2020, infecting millions and claiming the lives of several hundreds of thousands (at the time of writing). Despite this, many individuals have ignored public health guidance and continued to socialize in groups. Emergent work has highlighted the potential role that ideology plays in such behavior, and judgements of it. In response to this contemporary cultural phenomenon, we tested whether judgements o…
Exploring the Ownership of Child-Like Sex Dolls
There is a fervent social debate ongoing that relates to the ownership of child-like sex dolls. On the one hand, some proponents of dolls suggest that they offer a safe sexual outlet for minor-attracted people (MAPs) and could be used in efforts to prevent the sexual abuse of children. On the other side of the debate, child-like dolls are seen as articles that sexualize children, encourage deviant fantasies, and increase offending risk. To date, …
Low system justification drives ideological differences in joke perception: A critical commentary and re-analysis of Baltiansky et al. (2021)
A recent study by Baltiansky et al. (2021), which was published in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research tested two hypotheses related to system justification and the perception of stereotypical humor. They reported to have found evidence for a cross-over interaction, with judgments of jokes being contingent on a combination of the social status of the targets of jokes and raters’ system justification motivations. Here, we discuss the or…
Are Categorical Deniers Different? Understanding Demographic, Personality, and Psychological Differences between Denying and Admitting Individuals with Sexual Convictions
The purpose of this study was to establish whether there were demographic, personality, or psychological differences between a sample of 40 incarcerated sex offenders in categorical denial and 37 sex offenders admitting responsibility in an Australian minimum-security unit. Categorical deniers had lower IQs, were older, and were more likely to be child molesters. Criminogenically, there were no differences between categorical deniers and those wh…
Counterblast: Punitive P ayne, Justice Campaigns, and Popular Punitivism – Where Next for ‘Public Criminology
This paper looks at the increasing power of the British press in relation to (in)forming political responses to crime. Drawing on the example of the Sun Justice campaign, we examine the trend of the celebrification of news and the use of emotional language in relation to sexual offending. We argue that criminologists should be more forceful in their response to misrepresentative press reporting about crime, and unashamedly promote empirical findi…
A Prototype-Willingness Model of Sexual Crime Discourse in England and Wales
Dual-process models of decision making assume that we process information using two distinct ‘systems’: a deliberate and analytical system, and an intuitive system. This article uses 148 UK press articles about sexual crime to apply one such model – the ‘prototype-willingness’ model – to the study of social discourses about sexual crime in England and Wales. A small number of cases were significantly over-represented within the article sample (fo…
The Emotional Representation of Sexual Crime in the National British Press
The relationships between the media, public attitudes, and crime are complex, with evidence suggesting that public interaction with these press reports influencing wider social and political attitudes. Here, 543 articles from 8 of the 10 most-read British national newspapers were examined in terms of their representativeness of crime rates, and their linguistic properties. Results include a 9:1 representation of sexual crime, a 2.5:1 representati…
The role of intuitive moral foundations in Britain's vote on EU membership
In June 2016, British voters took part in a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union (EU). By a margin of 52% to 48%, they voted to leave. Studies have demonstrated that fixed demographic factors were the best predictors of voting intentions in either direction, or that “leave” voters were driven by perceived threats from immigration. In this paper, we examine the role of moral intuitions in referendum voting intentions…
Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the Covid-19 pandemic
In the current context of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), health professionals are working with social scientists to inform government policy on how to slow the spread of the virus. An increasing amount of social scientific research has looked at the role of public message framing, for instance, but few studies have thus far examined the role of individual differences in emotional and personality-based variables in pre…
Functional Fear Predicts Public Health Compliance in the Covid-19 Pandemic
In the current context of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), health professionals are working with social scientists to inform government policy on how to slow the spread of the virus. An increasing amount of social scientific research has looked at the role of public message framing, for instance, but few studies have thus far examined the role of individual differences in emotional and personality-based variables in pre…
The Internalization of Social Stigma Among Minor-Attracted Persons: Implications for Treatment
In this article, we sought to build on existing stigmatization research by examining the extent to which internalized stigmatization (i.e., the personal adoption and incorporation of social views, operationalized as thought suppression—an avoidant coping strategy—and low psychological well-being) among minor-attracted persons (MAPs) may impact upon help-seeking behaviors and their avoidance of children. We adopted a cross-sectional anonymous surv…
Non-Consensual Image-based Sexual Offending: Bridging Legal and Psychological Perspectives
Are Categorical Deniers Different? Understanding Demographic, Personality, and Psychological Differences between Denying and Admitting Individuals with Sexual Convictions
The purpose of this study was to establish whether there were demographic, personality, or psychological differences between a sample of 40 incarcerated sex offenders in categorical denial and 37 sex offenders admitting responsibility in an Australian minimum-security unit. Categorical deniers had lower IQs, were older, and were more likely to be child molesters. Criminogenically, there were no differences between categorical deniers and those wh…
Loss and Assimilation: Lived Experiences of Brexit for British Citizens Living in Luxembourg
Inconsistent political realities are associated with mental health issues such as hopelessness, anxiety, and depression. The psychological impact of Brexit is clearly an important and timely issue, but hitherto has been understudied. This study uses a critical realist approach to qualitatively explore the lived experiences of British citizens living in Luxembourg during the Brexit era. The study reports on semi-structured interviews conducted wit…
Celebrity status, sex, and variation in psychopathy predicts judgements of and proclivity to generate and distribute deepfake pornography
Humanizing Pedophilia as Stigma Reduction: A Large-Scale Intervention Study
The stigmatization of people with pedophilic sexual interests is a topic of growing academic and professional consideration, owing to its potential role in moderating pedophiles’ emotional well-being, and motivation and engagement in child abuse prevention schemes. Thus, improving attitudes and reducing stigmatization toward this group is of paramount importance. Prior research has suggested that narrative humanization—presenting personal stories…
Ideological responses to the breaking of Covid-19 social distancing recommendations
COVID-19 has plagued the globe since January 2020, infecting millions and claiming the lives of several hundreds of thousands (at the time of writing). Despite this, many individuals have ignored public health guidance and continued to socialize in groups. Emergent work has highlighted the potential role that ideology plays in such behavior, and judgements of it. In response to this contemporary cultural phenomenon, we tested whether judgements o…
Exploring the Psychological Characteristics and Risk-related Cognitions of Individuals Who Own Sex Dolls
The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly controversial social issue over the last five to ten years, with many in society (and academia) calling for the criminalization of such dolls. At the root of these calls is the implicit (and often explicit) assumption that sex doll ownership contributes to increases in negative social attitudes toward women, and sexual offense risk among doll owners. However, there are yet to be any empirical …
Exploring the Ownership of Child-Like Sex Dolls
There is a fervent social debate ongoing that relates to the ownership of child-like sex dolls. On the one hand, some proponents of dolls suggest that they offer a safe sexual outlet for minor-attracted people (MAPs) and could be used in efforts to prevent the sexual abuse of children. On the other side of the debate, child-like dolls are seen as articles that sexualize children, encourage deviant fantasies, and increase offending risk. To date, …
Primary Health Professionals’ Beliefs, Experiences, and Willingness to Treat Minor-Attracted Persons
There is a desire and need among minor-attracted persons (MAPs) to access support within the community, and this often begins with an approach to healthcare providers working in general medical/mental health settings. However, little is known about the experiences of these non-specialist professionals in relation to their beliefs, knowledge, and decision-making processes when working with patients who disclose sexual attractions to children. Usin…
Do Concepts Creep to the Left and the Right? Evidence for Ideologically Salient Concept Breadth Judgments Across the Political Spectrum
Concept creep explains how established social concepts expand to incorporate new phenomena, with such expansions fundamentally changing conceptual definitions and contributing to a loss of a shared social understanding. However, the existing work has focused on concept creep within a small number of categories that are typically more salient for those on the political left. In this work, we examined whether concept creep is a predominantly leftis…
The ‘Perfect’ PARTNER: Understanding the Lived Experiences of Men Who Own Sex Dolls
The ownership of sex dolls has become an increasingly discussed phenomenon in recent years, with legal scholars and legislators calling for increased regulation and criminalization of such articles. However, our knowledge of sex doll ownership is lacking, and the peer-reviewed literature is especially sparse on detailed phenomenological analyses of the motivations of sex doll owners and their experiences of owning a doll. In this study, we interv…
Low system justification drives ideological differences in joke perception: A critical commentary and re-analysis of Baltiansky et al. (2021)
A recent study by Baltiansky et al. (2021), which was published in HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research tested two hypotheses related to system justification and the perception of stereotypical humor. They reported to have found evidence for a cross-over interaction, with judgments of jokes being contingent on a combination of the social status of the targets of jokes and raters’ system justification motivations. Here, we discuss the or…
The interaction between perceived chronological age and physical sexual development in attractiveness judgements made by people who are attracted to children
The measurement of sexual attraction patterns has significance in relation to the assessment and treatment of people who may have caused sexual harm. However, it is also important to understand the drivers of sexual attractions within the community. In recent times there has been an increased level of interest in people with attractions to children, but minimal attention has been paid to fully understand how different indicators of age might infl…
Development and validation of a measure of attitudes towards sex doll ownership
Sex dolls are beginning to become more mainstream, both in the public’s consciousness and in academic research. However, there is no current systematic examination of public attitudes toward sex dolls within the peer-reviewed literature, which represents a barrier to the efficient study of this topic. In this paper, we report the development and validation of such a measure. Using an international public sample, we found that Sex Doll Ownership A…
Sexual Crime and Community Reintegration
Misrepresenting the “MAP” Literature Does Little to Advance Child Abuse Prevention: A Critical Commentary and Response to Farmer, Salter, and Woodlock
In a recent paper published in Trauma, Violence, & Abuse , Farmer et al. purport to have critically examined the academic use of the term “Minor Attracted Persons” (MAPs) in published social science research. In the paper, their stated aims are to “understand how this body of scholarship defines and uses the terminology of MAP, conceptualizes sexual interest in minors, and its relationship with child sex offending, and the implications for child …
Understanding the use of child-related sexual fantasy and fictional sexual materials by people who are attracted to children
Sexual frustration is a potentially important treatment need for people who are attracted to children, but little is known about how such individuals seek to address this. In this paper, we report two studies with large community-based samples (Study 1 N = 265; Study 2 N = 733) providing insights into the scale and correlates of the use of these fictional sexual materials (FSM) in this community. Our data show that sexual fantasising and FSM use …
Psychology (20 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Criminology (7 works) · Law (7 works)