Consumer Attitudes: Online Shoe Shopping

Consumer Attitudes: Online Shoe Shopping Segmentation is to identify homogeneous groups or customer segments in the market place that will respond in a consistent, predictable way to variations in the marketing mix (Reynolds, 2006). Previous market segmentation research studies indicate that market segmentation benefits firms in various ways. It directly influences the consumer decision-making process (Haley, 1968). Also, it generates new market segments and creates new business opportunities, which enables companies to overcome developing barriers and to achieve competitive differentiation. IKEA, Gillette and Microsoft are all successful examples. (Bowonder, 2010) The product that people choose to use or wear exactly reflects their life taste and social identity (Solomon and Barmossy, 2006). Belk (2003) think that the shoes consuming are crucial for both men and women which are not only a way of self presentation but also inseparable parts of our extended selves. Shoes are the mirror of our souls. Furthermore, people assume others from their footwear. They would rather bear the tortures from a pair of uncomfortable but stylish shoes than wear an average one, because they believe that shoes have the magic for their self achievement. 4.11 Consumer Attitudes towards Shoes Women are known to be much crazier on shoes than men. A research in America in 2000 showed that women aging from 16 to 74 owned more than twice pairs of shoes as men did on average. And lots of women owned over 50 pairs of footwear while none of the male respondents owned more than 30 pairs. However, men spent almost 25 dollars more on their most expensive shoes than women (Belk, 2003). Another survey of working women recently conducted by Mintel revealed why women are so keen on shoes. Forty-four percent of those who aged 18-34 said they needed two pairs of shoes for work, one for commute and the other one for wearing in the office. And almost two-thirds of participants said shoes helped them to achieve a fashionable working look (Dolliver, 2010). But the report in Minter about footwear retailing in 2008 demonstrated that Younger consumers are looking for better but affordable quality while the older care more about comfort and durability. The younger, especially men, are much more willing to buy shoes online. Once experiencing successful online shoes shopping, they are more likely to repeat purchase. In 2008, only 5 per cent adults aged over 15 buy shoes online, in which those who aged 15-24 and 35-44 more frequently buy shoes on the Internet (Mintel, 2008). 4.2 Competitor Benchmark Learning from the Icons in the same industry can help company quickly improve in an economically way. The most successful example online for shoes selling is Zappos.com from the USA. Although Chinese culture and economical environment are completely different from the USA, there is no border for business. Zappos business mode and managerial experience could be a good model for EA. Zappos online shoes selling business is in common with EAs e-commerce plan. It built up the brand online and reached $1 billion annual sales after 10 years effort (Zappos.com, 2009). There are more than 500 brands and 90,000 styles of shoes on Zappos.com with the price ranged from $20 to $2,000 to meet the needs of different consumer groups. Delivering high-quality online service and building up brand credibility by favourable WOM are the two key successful necessities to Zappos (BRAND WEEK, 2008). The store experience and the product try-on experience are the two highlights of physical shoes stores that online shoes shopping can hardly compare at present. However, the customer service, entertainment marketing as well as no sale area limitation are the benefits that most physical stores can never reach. Craig Adkins, Executive Vice President of Zappos, said that they dont compete with other online trade companies but compete with physical stores. The only reason that they have grown so quickly and won the game in the fierce competition is to offer the best customer service, product option and delivery speed possible (Zmzsk.com 2009). The interactive sections such as videos and blogs also provide more diversified customer experience and achieve the breakthrough of customer value. Namely, customer service, product variety, delivery and interactivity could be the four key points for EAs e-commerce. 4.3 Market Data Research There is barely any research about the shoes market or online market specifically focusing on the places EA plans to target (Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province). However, we could have a general understanding about the Chinese online shoes market as a whole from the small amount of literature. With the popularity of online business, a lot export trade companies have been stepping into the home market through the internet. Certain famous shoes companies also start to change their companies from traditional bricks and mortar to bricks and clicks, even majority click level. Needless to say, EA will meet the competitors threats when it starts the approach into the new market. China is the largest footwear manufacturing base as well as the largest footwear consuming market around the world. The sales volume of Chinese shoes market is huge and steadily growing by years due to the large population and the annual improvement of disposable income. Those who live in the big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai as well as the coastal cities in Chinas southeast have the greatest purchasing power. According to The 2009 China Leather Shoes Market Situation Analysis and Forecast Report from Beijing Heading Century Consulting Co. Ltd, 85% of the total shoes consumption in China is low-to-middle-level products whereas most high-end shoes are imported from abroad (Sewworld.com 2009). There is a gap of the high-end domestic footwear market for EA to fill. Suffering from the economic recession, export trade shoes companies all consider stepping into the domestic market which contains numerous consumers and large consuming potential. But lots of them failed. The main barriers for those companies to open the home market are enormous variations of the outdated product style, lack of distribution channels, unfamiliarity with the market and huge costs of human and financial resources. Still, a great deal of export trade companies plan to have a finger in the pie despite of the difficulties (Cnxz.cn 2009). That means a chance for EA to survive in the dog-eat-dog world as long as the company finds the right way. On the other hand, department stores and speciality shops are the main distribution channels of leather shoes, according to The 2009 China Leather Shoes Consuming Market Research from Beijing Heading Century Consulting Co. Ltd, with 51.5% and 40.1%. Certain famous Chinese shoes brands, for instance, Belle, Aokang and Daphne, have occupied the majority of the domestic market and there is little market share left for those not that well-know SMEs (Sewworld.com 2009). The competition among physical stores is extremely fierce. Therefore, the SMEs start to explore a new distribution channel by opening the online market. In fact, several shoes brands which have physical stores have opened the online market. Not only the SMEs, but also large and famous companies either have built an online shopping website or have set up a virtual store with B2C websites. According to the China B2B Research Centre, there are more than 100 million internet consumers in China in 2009, and the number of the SMEs with e-commerce has dramatically increased to more than seven million in the past six years. Nevertheless, online sales in the footwear industry are basically at the initial stage except for a few industry leading companies which have entered the Internet shoes market early and systematically operated it in a large scale (Zmzsk.com 2009). EA could seize the right moment to open up a new world. 4.4 Online Consuming Analysis More and more people have joined the dramatically growing group shopping online, but still lots of people hold a conservative attitude towards online transaction. Risk perception about offering personal information, online payment and product quality etc. prevents consumers from further purchase behaviour. How can we encourage people to be willing to take risk (Schoormanà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’2007)? How can we convert web visitors to buyers? Considerable previous studies proved that online trust building is the biggest issue facing e-marketing managers. Trust to a large extent determines the success of the relationship between buyer and seller and it is rather significant in the changeable e-business environment (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Pavlou, 2003; Wang and Emurian, 2005). Establishing trust between shopper and sellers can reduce consumers uncertainty and rick perception. Furthermore, it has a positive impact on e-shoppers purchasing behaviour (Lim et al., 2010). There are manifold studies contributed to the definitions about trust. Deutsch (1962) thought that trust is an actions that increase ones vulnerability to another; Moorman (1992, p315) defined that Trust is the willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence; Sitkin and Roth (1993, p373) referred that trust is a belief in a persons competence to perform a specific task under specific circumstance. Whereas, Koufari and Sosa (2003) developed the concept of initial trust. In their opinion, trust can be built at the first time when people interact with the company, which directly influence the following consumer behaviour. Well-designed website and the good name of company can help visitors to form a positive attitude and against the risk of switching to competitors websites. Pleasant experience can gain a lot of new customers even at the first time. We agree that the first impression is very important, it may determine whether the future communication will continue or not. However, we believe that the temporary positive feelings aroused from the website are not equal to trust. Customers real faith towards the website requires companies to take continuous effort and to develop a good relationship with online consumers over time, such as offering an ongoing enjoyable interactive communication with customers. Furthermore, establishing and maintaining the trustful relationship can eventually affect the customers purchase intention (Bhattacherjee, 2002; Lee et al., 2001; Lim, 2001; Hoffman and Novak, 1996). Purchasing online involves risk, especially when a person lack experience with the online firm (Schlosser et al., 2006). In the particular case of EA, which just starts its approach to the domestic market, few people are aware of the company (reputation and size) and its products (brand and quality). Therefore, the progress of convincing consumers is fairly necessary and critical for EA, which means ongoing trust building is essential for EA to gradually convince its customers and maintain a good customer relationship. Thus, the present research is focused on investigating the importance and determinants of ongoing trust building. Numerous researchers have studied the importance of online trust building as well as the factors that influence the construction of trust in the virtual environment. For instance, Bhattacherjee (2002) claimed three key dimensions about the e-commerce trust: trustees ability, benevolence, and integrity. In his journal, he defines trustees ability as the trustors (website visitors) perception of trustees (online company) competencies and knowledge salient to the expected behaviour. For an online business, its website should clearly and successfully present the companys capabilities and professional skills (e.g. EAs expertise technology in making leather shoes) to increase the e-customers confidence via, for example, offering the list of the powerful partners, presenting detailed product or service information, designing an both attractive and functional (easy to understand/use/response) website. (Bhattacherjee, 2002) Benevolence here is referred to the faith in an online business that the company is willing to do more/extra service for the customers without profit consideration. The service or behaviour the online companies take can increase peoples confidence and sense of security. Its not possible for every company to offer extra service considering the additional cost. However, directed by the benevolent rules, online business firms should at least be completely aware that they need to respect their online consumers, fully understand their specific requirements, and work effectively and continuously on reducing web visitors uncertainties and worries. (Bhattacherjee, 2002) Integrity, in the e-shopping context, means customers confidence to the firms that their online commercial activities are directed under a set of moral principles or professional standards (Schlosser et al., 2006). In the practical virtual environment, the firms which conduct the integrity rules should attach great importance to the process of online transaction and relative service, the usage of consumers private data. These rules are practically linked with the realisation of company fulfilment, such as timely delivering, accurate record, reliable payment system and so on. (Bhattacherjee, 2002) In sum, indicated as the measurement of online trust building in many researches, trustees ability, benevolence, and integrity are associated with website design such as product presentation, attractiveness and usability, service quality, say delivery and payment system, and credibility (Bhattacherjee, 2002; Doney and Cannon, 1997). In other words, website design, credibility and service quality could contribute to purchase intention through ongoing trust building, and in the next section, a conceptual framework is built to testify it. 4.5 Conceptual Framework According to the studies on consumers relationship with companies (Bhattacharya and Sen, 2003), trust and online purchase intention (Schlosser et al., 2006), the key determinants of online satisfaction and the impact on the following behaviour (Zeng et al., 2009), the role of trust in online business (Lim et al., 2008) and online product presentations influence on peoples purchase intention (Park et al., 2005), we develop a conceptual framework about the key determinants that impact ongoing trust building, combining the practical situation of EA with previous studies on online shoes consuming characteristics. This study divides the contributors to ongoing trust building into three categories: (1) website design, (2) credibility and (3) service quality. The Research Model is presented below (Figure 1). It is predicted that website design, credibility and online service quality will affect consumers intention to purchase indirectly through ongoing trust building. Whats more, the study will discover whether the three contributors share equal weight of influence on purchase intention. In a word, we argue that if online consumers perceive high-level web design, high credibility and high-quality service, then they are more likely to trust in the online service provider, which in turn contributes to intention to purchase. The results will be able to offer the directions and guidelines for EA or future shoes business to improve their online marketing performance. Figure 1: Research Model 4.51 Ongoing Trust Building Crosby et al. (1990) defined trust as a conviction when the customer develops a tacit understanding with a seller, and a seller can be relied upon to behave in such a manner that the long-term interest of the customer will be served. Pavlou (2003) indicated that trust in e-commerce is the belief that allows consumers to willingly become vulnerable to web retailers after having taken the retailers characteristics into consideration. In the virtual world, customers cant access enough information about the company to build the trust, which makes it more difficult to achieve trust at the beginning of a relationship than in the physical world (Wirtz and Lihotzky, 2003). Therefore, on the basis of the previous literature review, we define ongoing trust building as the continuous efforts that create and maintain a consumers confidence in an online service providers ability, benevolence, and integrity in order to achieve a lasting buyer-seller relationship (Liang and Chen, 2009; Bhattacherje e, 2002). Several researches have studied trust in e-business. There are different points of view about the taxonomy of trust. For instance, Kim et al. (2005) thought trust impacts buyers purchase intention in four dimensions: trust in technology, trust in product, trust in institution and trust in information. Plank et al. (1999) categorized trust into three types: trust in product, trust in company and trust in salesperson and developed various sales strategies for each. Moreover, Lim et al. (2008) proposed three key trust variables specific to online automobile insurance business which are service trust, company trust and product trust. And this viewpoint was proved by Lim et al. (2010). In our opinion, services, products and company reputation are more paramount to EA as a high-end online shoes selling SME and require more trust from consumers. Thus, we argue that service trust, company trust and product trust could be the key variables to high-end online shoes selling business and EAs ong oing trust building should base on the three dimensions. For an online business, its website is the primary channel for contact and communication with its customers and it shapes the cognitive perception of the customer. That is why e-commerce companies are constantly looking for ways to improve their websites to make the interaction between the website and the customer more inviting, convenient, and ultimately conductive to purchasing their products and services. (Lim et al., 2010) As we mentioned in the previous literature review, consumer perception to the website has an indirect effect on purchase intention via ongoing trust building. Namely, consumers perceptions towards website design, credibility and service quality of an online service provider are positively associated with its ongoing trust building and ultimately influence consumers intention to purchase. 4.52 Website Design As the traditional shopping channel is gradually replaced by the internet, e-retailers have to rely to a great degree on the website interface, which is not only a critical medium to publicise itself and improve its reputation, but also a necessary channel to sell products and services as well as interact with web shoppers to win e-consumers trust (Rayport and Jaworski, 2001; Bellizzi, 2000; Hoque and Lohse, 1999; Jarvenpaa and Todd, 1996/1997; cited in Song and Zahedi, 2005). Features, component, information are three key components of website design (Song and Zahedi, 2005). A well-designed website can skilfully apply the three elements and attractively present valuable content in a clear-structured format with certain creative feature (Ahn et al. 2004; Konradt et al 2003), by which can increase web visitors interest and prolong their browsing time. The longer visitors stick to one particular website, the easier they are likely to form a positive attitude towards it, which could con tribute to a trustful relationship (Mccloskey, 2003-2004). New information technology is welcomed only when its useful and easy to use (Davis et al., 1989). Taylor and Todd (1995) also clarified that compatibility impacts peoples acceptance of technology. When people are searching or shopping online, the websites learnability, efficiency, memorability, infrequency of errors, and other key features of web design (Nielsen, 2000), such as the ease of use of the website, the quality of information, or the effectiveness of online transaction, are very significant. They dominate consumers following behaviours: to stick to the website or switch to another one, to view more information or actively communicate with the company via internet (Zeng et al., 2009; Koh and Kim, 2004; cited in Lin, 2007). In addition, attractive outlook or atmospheric stimuli in the offline shopping environment may increase consumers purchasing possibilities (Weinberg and Gottward, 1982; Weinberg and Gottward, 1994; cited in Wang et al., 2009). Similarly, well-designed website and skilfully application of the information technology can appeal web-visitors to stick longer to the website and have interactive communication with its staff (Heijden, 2003). And it was valued as the reason for satisfaction and subsequent trust (Martà ­n and Camarero, 2007). As Anderson (1980) referred that it is very important to catch peoples eyeballs at the first time, the visual appeals would possible influence the subjective judgment about the websites performance (Jennigns, 2000; Tractinsky et al., 2000). Approving this theory, Lindgaard and Fernandes (2006) also emphasised that a reliable decision can be made in 50 minutes. When consumers visit one website at the first time and the impression formed in the first 50 mi nutes could influence the consequent decisions. On the other hand, for apparel shopping, consumers are quite concern about the material, the fit, the colour and the quality of the products, but its difficult to know when people shopping in the virtual environment. Risk perception might be one of the most important reason that restrain consumers to purchase online (McCorkle, 1990; Ernst and Young, 2001; Park et al., 2005). As a result, presenting product in an attractive and convincing way is necessary to the online apparel companies. Also, pleasant virtual shopping experience may reduce the perceived risk which associated with online purchasing behaviour (Bhatti et al., 2000; Park et al., 2005). Furthermore, as mentioned above, one of most key factors for Zappos success is the shoes presentation in 360 degree with plenty of pictures, which minimise the uncertainties of online shoes shopping (Zappos.com, 2009). According to the empirical research conducted by Song and Zahedi (2005), website design can strengthen customers beliefs and consequently increase the tendency of purchasing online. Therefore, we assume that the website design presents a unique competitive advantage among all the e-commerce strategies and the website usability combined with novel design as well as the product presentation in a detailed and clear way lead to e-consumers ongoing trust building. H1: Web Design has a positive influence on ongoing trust building. 4.53 Credibility Credibility was defined as the consumer belief that a seller is competent, reliable, predictable, and honest, and would perform a potential transaction effectively and reliably, acknowledge explicit contracts, and fulfill the requirements of an agreement (Pavlou, 2002). It is another important contributor to the online trust building. Credibility was also described as believability and a credible website means a believable website (Fogg et al., 2001). Drawing on previous studies, credibility has been identified with two most important dimensions: trustworthiness and expertise. (Fogg et al., 2001; Corritore et al., 2003; Fogg and Tseng, 1999). Trustworthiness is characterised by the well-intentioned, truthful, unbiased behaviour, which requires the web-marketers to convey a real-world features towards its customers, that is to say, providing physical address and employee photographs, linking to outside materials and sources or stating a policy on content, to create a honest and accountable company image. Expertise can be proved by the professional knowledge or skills, sufficient experience and capability (Fogg et al., 2001). In the context of e-commence, e-retailers expertise and profession can be delivered to e-consumers by the demonstration of credentials or the proofs from a third party. As we mentioned before, the Internet is still considered as a risk shopping channel for public. E-marketers face the challenge of reducing the risk perception of shopping online when stepping into the online market where traditional face-to-face communications are replaced by the way of face-to-screen. Particular virtual characteristics require online business to offer a convincing mechanism. Some researchers have proved that feedback mechanism can positively support online transaction, functioning as WOM in the off-line commerce context (Pavlou, 2002). Additionally, reputation is a critical element in the online world, which can help e-retailers to reduce consumers risk perception and lead to the improvement of online trust (Pavlou, 2002). Positive comments from the third parties (previous buyers) have been examined to increase e-retailers reputation and can be a major source of information for trust building, which in turn improve online sellers credibility (Doney and Cannon, 1997, cited in Pavlou, 2002; Kim et al., 2004). Considering online feedback mechanism is a continuous two-way communication progress, it can also contribute to the ongoing course of online trust building. Thus, we hypothesise that a credible website with truthful and expertise features, supported by good reviews, positively affects the ongoingtrust building. H2: Credibility has a positive influence on ongoing trust building. 4.54 Service Quality Parasuraman (1985) defined service quality as the relative perceptual distance between customer expectations and evaluations of service experiences and service quality in his SERVQUAL model (Sung et al., 2009). High-quality service including regularly update web information, response customers enquiry immediately, easy and safe online payment system, clear return/chance/refund policies has a positive impact on website performance (Park and Kim, 2003). Technology development has laid a sound foundation for the service evolution of e-commerce. The increasing popularity and quality of broadband Internet access as well as advanced Web technologies have allowed online retailers to provide flexible and competitive services to their existing and potential customers. These technologies allow retailers to build their online stores and services, and effectively deploy strategies in all aspects of their operations (Lusch et al., 2007 and McCarthy and Aronson, 2000; cited in Ayanso et al., 2010). More and more web retailers are applying advanced information technologies and creative website features to offer better service to the customers (Dabholkar et al., 2003; Moitra and Ganesh, 2005; Tarafdar and Zhang, 2005; Udo and Marquis, 2001; Viswanathan et al., 2007; Wakefield et al., 2004). These refined technology-based website functionalities such as personalisation, advanced search tools and product cataloguing are remarkably popular among onl ine retailers (Chu et al., 2007). They couldnt offer such high-quality online service without the technology support. Many past researches have positively linked online service quality to e-commerce performance. Liu et al. (2001) pointed out four determinants that are significantly related to e-commerce success, which are information and service quality, system use, playfulness, and system design quality. Based on DeLone and McLeans study (2003), Liang and Chen (2009) identified service quality as one of the three important factors of information system success. Marimon et al. (2010) examined that high levels of online service quality has a positive impact on purchasing behavior. While lots of researches testified that service quality is a key attribute of the e-commerce success, several studies argued that none of them have established an empirical link association between online service quality and the retailers actual sales performance (Ayanso et al., 2010; Marimon et al., 2010). However, considering this study is a consultancy project which is reality-based, practical experience of other firms cant be ignored. In the case of Zappos we have learned that the most critical reason for them to develop so rapidly from an unknown company is customer service, especially the 365 day return and free shipping both ways policy. The main concern when people buying shoes online is that the purchased shoes do not fit them (in size/colour) because they cant try them on before ordering. Particularly in the case of EA, which is not famous and sells quite expensive shoes, a customer-friendly advanced delivery system helps to remove or at least reduce the concern, which is matched with the study conducted by Tan and Wu in 2004. Also, Parasuraman et al. (2005) identified fulfilment, the extent to which the sites promises about order delivery and product availability are fulfilled, as the most critical dimensions of e-service quality and Boshoff split fulfilment into delivery and reliability and proved it to be the strongest predictor of value perception (Parasuraman et al., 2005, Boshoff, 2007; cited in Marimon et al., 2010). Therefore, we argue that service quality could be a stronger antecedent of online trust building due to fulfilment aspect. Furthermore, Tan and Wu (2004) referred that, especially for the wholesalers and retailers in China, the barriers to employ online promotions were poor credibility monitoring systems both for vendors and consumers, awkward delivery systems, and lagging behind payment. A reliable payment system is also important for EA due to the high price of its products. People start to think more when its a large amount of money paying to a not well-known company. Moreover, Stockdale and Standing (2006) compared the benefits and barriers which SMEs should take into account for e-business. Apart from limited resources, one of the most possible barriers for SMEs is the lack of specific e-commerce marketing experience or e-busines s professionals. Especially in China e-commerce is still at the initial stage and organisations are exploring e-business while doing it. That is, another important attribute is e-business professionals. Perceived service quality significantly contributes to customer trust (Liang and Chen, 2009). Namely, the service quality of an online firm is positively linked with its ongoing trust building in three dimensions: e-business professionals, fulfilment and payment system. Accordingly, we propose that: H3: Service Quality has a positive influence on ongoing trust building. 4.55 Intention to Purchase We can expect that the various antecedents of online trust building web design, credibility, service quality have different effects on purchase intention. This expectation is based on the previous study about the behavioural consequences of customer satisfaction (Zeng et al., 2009). In the findings, five elements (fulfilment/reliability, customer service, ease of use and product/service quality) are directly/indirectly impact the customer behavioural consequence through overall satisfaction, while those behavioural consequences are practically and theoretically proved to demonstrate as loyalty to the firm, intention to purchase and repurchase, willingness to pay premium price, willingness to post positive reviews about the firm and its service, and recommendation to others (Bearden and Teel, 1983; Zeithaml et al., 1996; cited in Zeng et al., 2009). Customer satisfaction was found to possibly contribute to trust and satisfied customers mostly have high confidence in the company and their future transaction activities (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999; Geyskens et al., 1998; Ganesan, 1994; cited in Liang and Chen, 2009). Approved by their own research, Liang and Chen (2009) suggested that trusted consumers have more commitment and more willingness to develop a solid relationship with service providers than satisfied ones. This finding logically supports the prediction that trust has a positive influence on the intention to purchase/re purchase. Public Opinion: Gender Differences in Sex Abuse of Children Public Opinion: Gender Differences in Sex Abuse of Children Table of Contents (Jump to) 1. Introduction 2. Gender Bias 3. Gender Inequality 3. Registering of Sex Offenders 4. Limitations of the Research Approach 5. References 1. Introduction This dataset is analysed using the principal of thematic analysis. The dataset was extracted from media reports related to the case of a woman who abused her partner’s three-year-old daughter. Thematic analysis is a qualitative analytic method used for analysing or identifying themes across a dataset (Craver, 2014). The process is illustrated in the appendices, adopting the approach used by King and Horrocks (2010). One of the overarching themes in the analysis of the data relates to public opinion about gender differences in the sexual abuse of children. There are two sub-categories, namely gender bias and gender inequality. 2. Gender Bias Gender bias can be seen in the few quotes below: â€Å"A group of feminist not too long ago told me women never sexually abuse anyone only men I guess this women and those teachers that have been in the news recently don’t exist† â€Å"This cannot be true! Because feminists are constantly telling us that it is only men who are violent and abusive!† â€Å"It has been kept quiet over the years just how many women abuse children. I’m glad that she is being held accountable. â€Å"Another female paedophile, the myth of all women being gentle is lifted† â€Å"We hear so many stories of â€Å"boyfriends† of women being guilty of abusing a child, so this is quite shocking, what is her excuse? â€Å"We live in a gynocentric feminist so society. Had he not done it this way, she would have accused him, he would have been arrested, separated from his child and would never been believed. Ask the thousands of fathers to whom similar things have happened through malicious false accusations. Men a perpetrator. Women are victims. De facto† Analytic research done by Landor and Eisenchlas (2012) shed some light on gender bias in Australian print-media reports regarding sexual acts. The authors gave two case studies. First, they described the teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau’s marriage to her former student, with whom she had been engaged in a sexual relationship since he was 12 years of age. The headline they use as an example reads: â€Å"School lovers tie knot†. The contrasting case advanced by the authors was related to the story of Brisbane teacher Allan Thomas Walters, who was charged with indecency in his dealings with a 13-year-old boy; the example headline reads: â€Å"More time for pervert†. The two case studies advanced by the authors are very similar in terms of the age of the victim and the offences committed. However, the media clearly portrayed LeTourneau’s case in a less negative way than Walters’ case. The article uses the comparison appropriately throughout, although the arg ument presented is unbalanced. Another example of gender bias was given by Tsopelas et al. (2012), in which a victim of a female perpetrator was not believed when they made allegations to the authorities. This suggests that a higher standard of evidence is required in cases of child sex abuse by female perpetrators. It can be seen on the data transcript that some people were angry that the father had to put the girl through more abuse before enough evidence could be gained. â€Å"My stepmother, a famous person, abused my little brother like this when he was a toddler. To this day, despite my witnessing it and my brother being terrified of her, my father refuses to believe us. If only we too could have planted a camera† â€Å"Another awful thing about this is that with the knowledge that his daughter was being abused in order for him to gather evident the child had to endure another vile attack† â€Å"Its so sad that the faher had to put his daughter through two more violent events in order to get proff but I guess he had no choice.† â€Å"Well done for showing self restraint altho I don’t agree with the way the child was put thu the abuse again in order to abtain more damning evidence† â€Å"Men a perpetrators. Women are victims. De facto† â€Å"†¦..after just having read bat those poor wretched girls in Rotherham. Authorities there should all be sacked, how can this happen, seriously? â€Å"Reading the comments made I can say that the Father did the right thing 1. He had a recording of what was happening the Child screaming, yelling, crying for Help. That is not enough proof for the Police, that can be classified as Child Abuse only. 2. He had to have actual evidence for the Police, Courts. Of the actual act been committed for his (Partner) to be prosecuted in court in accordance with the law. She could have turned all against him, had he not had that important piece of evidence, so she can be convicted and from now on be classified as a Paedophiler(visual/audio proof). 3. Gender Inequality Gender inequality is the second sub-category. Geddes, Tyson, and McGreal (2012) discovered that female teachers who have committed sexual acts with a student are punished more leniently compared to male counterparts. The study also found that participants showed significantly more anger towards male teachers who commit such acts. However, the sample size of the study was not equally distributed: although the author randomly sent out the questionnaire to 250 female students and 250 male students, out of 130 respondents, 86 were female and 44 were male. Geddes, Tyson and McGreal (2012) believed a sample size of more than 30 participants was large enough to obtain significant values, based on a test run on the violation assumption using analysis of variance. However, it is important to achieve a gender-balanced sample size to study gender bias. Gender inequality can be found in the following comments: â€Å"As usual not naming this monster, but a guy doing this would have his picture and name plastered all over the media† â€Å"Why isn’t she being named, if it was a bloke his name would be plastered everywhere for what he did† â€Å"This woman is a common filthy pedophile and must go to jail, as men go to jail. Anything other than jail would serve as proof there are not equal rights between the genders† â€Å"2Guaranteed this woman will not do jail I don’t care what that judge said, however if the roles were reserved this would be another matter† â€Å"Who recalls the push for laws where women would be allowed to have the police run back ground check on potential partners. Do man get this right? If not why not?† Angelides (2008) discusses another aspect of gender inequality in child sex-abuse cases. The author presented two examples involving a teacher-student relationship. One involved Karen Ellis, a 37-year-old teacher who committed sexual offences with a child under the age of 16. She was sentenced for six months. On the other hand, tennis coach Gavin Hopper pleaded guilty of having a sexual relationship with his 14-year-old student and was jailed for two years and three months. On the basis of this comparison of two similar situations Angelides (2008) presents a very good argument regarding the principal of gender equality in the sentencing of offenders. While judges have shown some leniency towards female perpetrators, comments from the data seem to express a wish to see harsh punishment for sex offenders. For example: â€Å"A nice long sentence I hope† â€Å"I’d lock her in solitary confinement and feed her food under the door and weld it up so she could not be released.† â€Å"Jail this pedophile for life† â€Å"This woman is a common filthy pedophile and must go to jail, as men go to jail. â€Å"Hope the horrible woman is jailed for a long time. â€Å"It’s the other prisoners who could be her real punishment† â€Å"VILE WOMAN THROW THE BOOK AT HER† Statistics have shown that sex-offender treatment programmes have a small but positive effect on sex offenders (Craissati, South, Bierer, 2009). However, in some patriarchal cultures such as in India, harsher punishments are meted to stop violence against women (Gill, Harrison, 2013). Gill and Harrison (2013) discussed both punitive options and the kinds of treatment that are available for sex offenders in relation to the sexual violence issue in India. The punitive options are demonstrably based on the human-rights principle regarding the death penalty. Gill and Harrison (2013) believed that harsh punishment might not be the best approach to sex offences in the justice system in India. Sex-offender treatment programmes might be a better strategy. Declining moral standards is another overarching theme. Males were dominantly viewed as perpetrators of child sex abuse in the 1980s, with females appearing almost exclusively as victims (Tsopelas, Tsetsou, Ntounas and Douzenis, 2012). Current literature is paying more attention to the role of female sexual abusers. This cultural shift was due to the increasing of the proportion of female sex offenders in all sexual-assault arrests from 1% in 1994 to 8% in 1997 (Vandiver and Walker, 2002). Below are the illustrative quotes from the data that show public disappointment about declining moral values in society: â€Å"Britain in the 21st century† â€Å"What the hell is wrong with people. Why would you harm an innocent child?† â€Å"What has gone so wrong in our world when so much of this is happening?† â€Å"Some people say it was always so, but I dont believe that at all. I think its an epidemic now† â€Å"I remember my childhood as being safe and secure. Parents were always there for me. I wish it could be the same for all children. What a horrible world we live in† â€Å"Something is clearly wrong in this godforsaken world we live in† 3. Registering of Sex Offenders One further overarching theme is related to legislation. Registering of child sex abusers is practised by many Western countries such as the USA and the United Kingdom. The general public tend to want sex offenders to be put on a register in order to protect the general public. But other find this labelling could create a barrier to sex offenders reintegrating with society (Bollinger, Seidler, Kemp, 2012). The study by Bollinger, Seidler and Kemp (2012) found an interesting result: people with children wanted more punitive approaches towards sexual offenders, even when not fully aware of the purpose of a register. A few relevant quotes are shown below: â€Å"I hope shes put on the domestic abuse register† The attacker has, IMO, no right to anonymity† â€Å"so she can be convicted and from now on be classified as a Paedophiler† â€Å"Around here we are starting to name and shame people that don’t pick up their dog mess YET they don’t name or shame these disgusting vile people? We have right to know who she is. However, some quotes suggest perpetrators should not be named, in order to protect their victims: â€Å"The anonymity of the perp is to protect the identity of the child, not the perp. As a victim of sexual abuse there is an automatic protection of identity† The problem with naming and shaming is that if the perpetrator of the abuse is known to people in the area, the little girl would also be identified by association which is often best avoided† 4. Limitations of the Research Approach Thematic analysis is a popular method widely used in qualitative research (Braun Clarke, 2013). However, this qualitative method can be subject to the personal bias of researchers (Vaismoradi, Turunen, Bondas, 2013) as well as the researcher’s grounding in epistemological philosophy. Hence, it is important to take the philosophical perspective into account when choosing the design for the study. 5. References Angelides, S. (2008). ‘Sexual offences against â€Å"children† and the question of judicial gender bias.’ Australian Feminist Studies, 23(57), 359-373. Doi: 10.1080/08164640802233302 Bollinger, J., Seidler, K., Kemp, R. (2012). ‘Who thinks what about child protection: Community perceptions and awareness of child protection strategies and their effectiveness for reducing sexual reoffending.’ Sexual Abuse in Australia and New Zealand, 4(4), 33-40. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4sid=4f62b2c7-f642-47e6-b828-1f128e44c525%40sessionmgr4001hid=4213 Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Craissati, J., South, R., Bierer, K. (2009). ‘Exploring the effectiveness of community sex offender treatment in relation to risk and re-offending.’ Journal of Forensic Psychiatry Psychology, 20(6), 769*784. Doi: 10.1080/14789940903174105 Craver, G.A. (2014). ‘Not just for beginners – A review of successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners.’ The Qualitative Report, 19 (review 16), 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu.ssss/QR/QR19/craver16.pdf Geddes, R.A., Tyson, G.R., McGreal (2012). ‘Gender bias in the education system: Perceptions of teacher-student sexual relationships.’ Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com Gill, A.K., Harrison, K. (2013). ‘Sentencing sex offenders in India: Retributive justice versus sex offender treatment programmes and restorative justice approaches.’ International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences, 8(2), 166-181. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7sid=bf077283-9215-4735-9500-dad6353ad5fc%40sessionmgr4001hid=4213 King, N., Horrocks, C. (2010). Interviews in qualitative research. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Landor, R.V., Eisenchlas, S.A. (2012). ‘â€Å"Coming clean† on Duty of Care: Australian print media’s representation of male versus female sex offenders in institutional contexts.’ Sexuality Culture, 16, 486-502. Doi: 10.1007/s12119-012-9134-5. Tsopelas, C., Tsetsou, S., Ntounas, P., Douzenis, A. (2012). ‘Female perpetrators of sexual abuse of minors: what are the consequences for the victims?’ International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 35(4), 305-310. Doi: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2012.04.003 Vandiver, D.M., Walker, J.T. (2002). ‘Female sex offenders: An overview and analysis of 40 cases.’ Criminal Justice Review, 27(2), 284-300. Retrieved from http://cjr.sagepub.com/content/27/2/284 Vaismoradi, M., Turunen, H., Bondas, T. (2013). ‘Content analysis and thematic analysis: Implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study.’ Nursing and Health Sciences, 15, 398-405. Doi: 10.1111/nhs.12048