Fight, flight, and free will: The effect of trauma informed psychoeducation on perceived culpability and punishment for juvenile and adult offenders.

Abstract

Justifications for punishment are generally grounded in retribution or consequentialism. Retribution is rooted in and legitimized by common sense notions of free will, claiming that offenders freely and rationally choose to commit a criminal act, and are therefore deserving of punishment. Consequentialism does not necessitate a reliance on a belief in free will, and views punishment as means to a valuable end. In recent years, neuroscientific research has challenged the notion of free will, providing one pathway for a public shift away from retribution and towards consequentialism. To date, no studies have examined whether educating participants about biopsychosocial effects of trauma that are often outside of conscious awareness may contribute to free will doubt. This study used a 2 (biopsychosocial information, neutral information)×2 (juvenile offender, adult offender) between subjects design and measured beliefs in free will, judgments of culpability, and justifications for punishment. Results showed a main effect of trauma informed psychoeducation on free will beliefs, such that individuals who watched a trauma video had lower free will beliefs compared to individuals who watched a control video. Direct effects of trauma informed psychoeducation on sentence severity and on justifications for punishment were nonsignificant. However, mediation analyses revealed that free will beliefs had an indirect effect on the relations between trauma informed psychoeducation and perceived culpability and that perceived culpability had an indirect effect on the relations between trauma informed psychoeducation and retribution, consequentialism, and punishment severity.