Punitive Attitudes Research Articles

Exploration of the Community Attitude toward Sex Offender Scale in a Chinese Cultural Context

Chinese culture holds very different beliefs regarding sex offenses, violence against women and punishment against offenders. Little is known however about Chinese attitudes toward sex offenders and sex offending policies. The aim of this study was to validate the Community Attitude toward Sex Offender Scale in the Chinese cultural context. Results from a territory-wide telephone survey in Hong Kong revealed a three factor structure that measures perceptions of sex offenders’ social isolation, deviancy and punitive attitudes toward sex offenders. The scale has been renamed as the simplified Community Attitude toward Sex Offender Scale-Chinese (CATSO-C). Each subscale and the total scale showed acceptable internal reliability. This instrument has implications for future cross-cultural studies as well as professionals that work with sex offenders.

Determinants of Punitive Attitudes of College Students Toward Criminal Offenders

A thorough review of the literature reveals many methodological weaknesses in research exploring the attitudes of the public toward criminal offenders. By identifying and correcting these shortcomings, this study examines the factors influencing the attitudes of college students toward criminal offenders. Examining these factors can significantly improve our understanding of why there has been a sharp increase in prison populations. A survey of 2,273 students in four Texas and Wisconsin universities provides us with original data for this analysis. Respondents were asked to assess appropriate punishments for six different types of crimes. An Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression enabled us to conclude that ideology is the best single predictor of student attitudes toward the treatment of criminals. In fact, in the face of strong political ideology, individual demographics seem to be irrelevant. Interestingly, Texas college students are more punitive toward sexual offenders than Wisconsin students are.

¿Los conocimientos criminológicos modulan la actitud punitiva?

El objetivo es demostrar cómo las actitudes punitivas más rigurosas suelen tener su origen en el desconocimiento de las funciones y del funcionamiento del sistema penal. Se parte de la hipótesis de que el conocimiento de la realidad delictiva, del delincuente y de la reacción penal hacen que las exigencias punitivistas sean menores que cuando se tenía un conocimiento estereotipado de dicha realidad. Para ello se ha pasado una encuesta al inicio y finalización del semestre a un grupo de tratamiento, formado por los alumnos de 1º del Grado de Criminología, y un grupo de control compuesto por alumnos de 1º de Derecho de la misma Universidad. Los resultados muestran que los conocimientos adquiridos producen un cambio significativo en su actitud punitiva, reduciéndose ésta con respecto a su actitud al inicio del curso.

Reconsidering predictors of punitiveness in Australia: A test of four theories

This study assesses and compares, in an Australian context, four explanations which have emerged to explain punitive attitudes. Each purports these attitudes have different origins: concerns over crime and a lack of trust in the state to deal with it (‘crime-distrust’ model); a desire to reinforce social cohesion or express discontent with society (‘social discontent’ model); an outlet for dissatisfaction over one’s own life (‘personal discontent’ model); and a wish to suppress or express prejudice towards disliked racial minorities (‘racial animus’ model). The study finds support for each of the crime-distrust, social discontent and racial animus models (but not the personal discontent model). Despite rarely being considered in Australia, it also suggest that social discontent and racial animus may have as great, if not greater, an impact on punitiveness as concerns over crime and the state’s response to it.

Trust and punitive attitudes

The aim of the study reported in this article was to identify how trust influences punitive attitudes, and to find out whether this differs in respect of thieves and corruption offenders. The respondents surveyed in the study reported sentencing preferences that were harsher in the case of corruption offenders than in the case of common thieves. The study demonstrates that punitive attitudes towards thieves and corruption offenders are triggered by different mechanisms: most socio-demographic variables can explain punitive attitudes towards corruption offenders while trust in politicians can explain punitive attitudes towards thieves, but not towards corruption offenders. The study indicates that an examination of general punitive attitudes is not sufficient for understanding the punitive attitudes concerning a particular type of offence. The study also suggests that penal populism regarding non-violent street criminals is unlikely to boost politicians’ approval ratings if trust in politicians is high.

Simultaneous prediction of punitive and rehabilitation-oriented attitudes towards probation

The concepts punitiveness and rehabilitation orientation in the general public are generally measured by rather broad attitude items that are not directly related to probation. In this study, two separate attitude scales were used that were tailor-made for the probation context and therefore have a high ecological validity. These ‘ecological scales’ were each analysed with the same predictor set. Cognitive emotive variables showed incremental prediction above demographics. Higher knowledge of probation and more satisfaction with society are related to a higher preference for rehabilitation. Less knowledge of probation and a higher feeling of victimization are related to a more punitive attitude.

Retribution as Revenge and Retribution as Just Deserts

Public attitudes towards law-breakers shape the tone and tenor of crime-control policy, and the desire for retribution seems to be the main motivation underpinning punitive attitudes towards sentencing. Yet, there is some confusion in the research literature over what retribution really means. In this paper we distinguish between retribution as revenge (as the desire to punish criminal offenders to retaliate a past wrong by making the offender suffer) and retribution as just deserts (as the preference to restore justice through proportional compensation from the offender). Results from an online survey (n = 176) provide evidence of two distinct dimensions of retribution. But we also show that these two dimensions have different ideological and motivational antecedents, and have different consequences in terms of the treatment of criminal offender. We find that retribution as revenge is associated with the motivation to enforce status boundaries with criminal offenders, as well as ideological preferences for power and dominance (as expressed by social dominance orientation) and in-group conformity (as expressed by right-wing authoritarianism). Endorsement of retribution as revenge also predicts the support of harsh punishment and the willingness to deny fair procedures. By contrast, retribution as just deserts is mainly predicted by a value restoration motive and by right-wing authoritarianism. After controlling for revenge, retribution as just deserts predicts support for procedural justice in the criminal courts. We conclude with the idea that beliefs about proportionality and compensation work as a buffer against the negative effects of revenge.

The Ethnic Typification of Crime and Support for Punitive Attitudes: An Exploratory Analysis of Arabs in Israel

Social threat theorists posit that the mere presence of racial or ethnic minorities induces a fear of crime that increases punitive attitudes and mobilizes mechanisms of social control. This study extends T. Chiricos, K. Welch, and M. Gertz's (2004) work on the racial typification of crime by examining intraethnic threat by utilizing a sample of Arabs in Israel. Results indicate that the ethnic typification of crime was not significantly associated with punitive attitudes and that concern for crime was the strongest and the most consistent predictor of punitive attitudes net of other control and demographic variables.

Emotions about crime and attitudes to punishment

Various polls and surveys seem to indicate that a substantial proportion of the Canadian public desires harsher penalties for crime. While various explanations have been offered for this punitiveness, emotional reactions to crime have been under-researched. The present research draws on a Canadian data set to test the hypothesis that the emotions of fear and particularly anger about crime are significant predictors of punitive attitudes once crime victimization, economic insecurity, internal attributions of crime causation and other variables are controlled for. This research also examines the possible indirect effects of economic insecurity, victimization and internal attributions of crime causation on punitiveness through their impact on fear and anger. The multiple regression results support the role of emotions, particularly anger, in explaining punitive attitudes. While indirect effects of victimization and economic insecurity were insignificant, 14 per cent of the effect of internal attributions was through anger.

Believing versus Disbelieving in Free Will: Correlates and Consequences

AbstractSome people believe more than others in free will, and researchers have both measured and manipulated those beliefs. Disbelief in free will has been shown to cause dishonest, selfish, aggressive, and conforming behavior, and to reduce helpfulness, learning from one’s misdeeds, thinking for oneself, recycling, expectations for occupational success, and actual quality of performance on the job. Belief in free will has been shown to have only modest or negligible correlations with other variables, indicating that it is a distinct trait. Belief in free will has correlated positively with life satisfaction and finding life meaningful, with self‐efficacy and self‐control, with low levels of stress, and (though not entirely consistently) with internal locus of control. High belief in free will has been linked to a punitive attitude toward wrongdoers and lower forgiveness toward them. The belief seems to involve a sense of agency and expecting others to behave in morally responsible fashion.

Outreach social workers for at-risk youth: A test of their attitudes towards crime and young offenders in Hong Kong

Abstract In Hong Kong, outreach social workers, a distinct group of social workers, are encouraged to initiate and maintain contact with young people who are perceived as “at-risk” of undesirable influences. In this study, 80 outreach social workers (45 females and 35 males) are recruited to explore their attitudes towards crime and young offenders in Hong Kong. Four measures (Attitudes towards the Causes of Crime Scale, Attitudes towards the Prevention of Crime Scale, Attitudes towards the Treatment of Crime Scale, and Attitudes towards Prisoner scale were self-administered by the participants. Overall, male and female participants are relatively similar in their perception in these four measures, with an exception that female participants are more likely than their male counterparts to perceive crimes as caused by nature (heredity and individual) factors. An ordinary least square regression indicates that the increase in years working as social workers is equally likely to reduce their probability to perceive crimes as caused by nature and nurture (social and environmental) factors. More research is required to explore further for such trend. As expected, the increase in years working as outreach social workers is likely to increase their likelihood to support for social intervention preventive measures. Finally, age is a salient attitudinal predictor of offender treatment approach, with older participants likely to hold more punitive attitudes towards offenders. Limitations and implications for future research are also discussed.

HIV/AIDS in 1990 and 2012

IN 1990, THE INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE WAS LAST held in the United States. The US Food and Drug Administration had approved only 1 antiretroviral drug to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (zidovudine, approved in 1987 [FIGURE]). Highly active antiretroviral therapy, which has made it possible to reduce the risk of HIV transmission and for infected individuals to live longer and healthier, was still 5 years in the future. The AIDS epidemic remained very much out of control in the United States and around the world. Each year brought many more infections and deaths, and the expanding pandemic threatened to overwhelm the capacity for an effective response. This month, the International AIDS Conference returns to the United States. The conference has been absent for more than 2 decades because from 1987 to 2010 the United States restricted entry of people living with HIV. These restrictions could have led to the cancellation of the 1990 San Francisco conference; there were fears that large numbers of people with HIV infection might be arrested on their way to the meeting. However, the 1992 conference, originally planned for Boston, was moved to Amsterdam as a protest against the continuing restrictions. The International AIDS Society, which convenes the conference, adopted a policy that prohibited the society from holding meetings in countries that restricted the short-term entry of people living with HIV and AIDS. HIV-specific travel and residence restrictions have never served a public health purpose. In January 2010, the United States formally lifted its travel and immigration restrictions regarding people with HIV. Yet as of 2011, the 30th year of the epidemic, about 50 countries still had some form of restriction on the entry, stay, and residence of people living with HIV based on their HIV status. As the ongoing controversy illustrates, the AIDS epidemic has always been about human rights, not simply a virus and its effects on the immune system. Social and political systems struggle to come to grips with discriminatory and punitive attitudes and practices directed at infected individuals, while scrambling to find sufficient resources for treatment and prevention. The AIDS epidemic is usually dated from June 5, 1981, when the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published a report of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in 5 previously healthy young men in Los Angeles, 2 of whom had died. The first International AIDS Conference was held in Atlanta in 1985, the third in Washington, DC, in 1987, and the sixth in San Francisco in 1990. In 1990, I worked as a medical writer for the Los Angeles Times and covered the San Francisco conference. Through a scientific lens, the conference, as I wrote at the time, was the first such gathering “where the promise of eventual success [against AIDS] loomed large, if only the political, economic and social will can be found to implement the key research advances.” Dozens of new AIDS drugs were in various stages of development. Anthony S. Fauci, then and now the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, set the goal for the 1990s as “a lofty one, namely the ability to completely and indefinitely suppress HIV in infected individuals.” The politics of AIDS, however, were quite unsettled. On the second-to-last day of the meeting, scientists and activists marched side by side through downtown San Francisco in a symbolic show of unity that was reported around the world. The message was, “We’re all in this together. Action equals life.” Yet in an equally striking tableau at the conference’s closing ceremony, jeering activists, frustrated over the response to the epidemic by the US government, drowned out remarks by Louis W. Sullivan, then the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as he stoically called for tolerance and unity in the fight against AIDS. During the last 2 decades, scientists, public health officials, and AIDS activists have not always agreed, but they have often listened to one another and worked toward common goals. Some of the United Nations’ current targets and commitments for elimination of HIV/AIDS might be considered primarily about public health (for example, reducing sexual transmission of HIV, preventing HIV among drug users, eliminating new HIV infections among children, increasing to 15 million the number of people accessing HIV treatment, and avoiding tuberculosis deaths), and some might be considered primarily about human rights (for example, eliminating gender inequalities, stigma and discrimination, and travel restrictions).

Patient safety: an educational competency

Although patient safety is of utmost importance in health-care encounters in all countries, preventable instances of harm are common. Crucial to increasing safety are safety cultures, atmospheres of error reporting, teamwork, and communication across roles and levels of authority that allow implementation of established safe procedures as well as innovation. Poor safety cultures are associated with increased error rates, yet surveys of safety attitudes among medical staff indicate that changes are often impeded by existing cultures of individual blame and attitudinal variations in specifi c care roles. Both punitive, blame-focused environments and divergent safety attitudes among care providers discourage the dialogue and teamwork crucial to systems level changes that increase safety. While continued eff orts to improve safety culture among staff are important, lasting change will only occur by engaging with trainees, the future providers who have hitherto largely been excluded from assessments. In a recent study, Hanan Aboumatar and colleagues found that curricular eff orts aimed at improved patient safety could improve trainees’ teamwork and communication skills. These promising fi ndings, how ever, have several limitations. First, the 3-day curriculum refl ects wide variations in quality, depth, and content among existing curricula, and highlights the diffi culty in interpreting overall effi cacy. Second, the intervention was too brief to address previous fi ndings that safety awareness among trainees is not always uniform and might not translate into appropriate safety behaviours. Finally, despite recognition of the need for interdisciplinary education, the study exclusively targeted medical students rather than students in other health-care professions. It is an important reminder that cadres of safety-minded providers will be cultivated only through robust curricula paired with comprehensive induction of teams into strong safety cultures. Nonetheless, the eff ort is crucial if the medical community is to champion patient safety in the future. Acculturation must begin early in undergraduate medical education and include interactions with other healthcare professions. To combat existing negative infl uences and connect safety awareness with corresponding behav iours, it must be sustained longitudinally through clinical experiences and careers through mechanisms like certifi cation and continuing medical education. Uncom promising focus on teamwork, communication, and safety is required—the professional integrity of generations of health-care professionals, and the patient safety agenda they are to be charged with, depend on it.

What Predicts Punitiveness? An Examination of Predictors of Punitive Attitudes towards Offenders in Australia

A widespread public preference for harsher sentencing (punitiveness) has been documented in a range of national and international studies. The present study examines the relative predictive power of a set of factors most commonly linked with punitiveness. This study is based on the responses given in the largest Australian survey to date of public attitudes to punishment (N = 6005). A combined hierarchical multiple regression model comprising demographic variables, media usage variables, and crime salience variables accounted for a significant 30% of variance in scores for punitiveness. The three variables that emerged as the strongest predictors of punitive attitudes were: perceptions of crime levels; education; and reliance on tabloid/commercial media for news and information. The results have direct implications for how we understand the persistent public preference for punishment and what might be required to ameliorate or respond to that preference.

Sikap Memidana yang Berorientasi pada Tujuan Pemidanaan

Punitive attitudes of law enforcers in some criminal cases seem not to benefit the convict, as it does not support the main objective of the criminal justice system. This is because of the absence of binding direction which guides judges in making judgments. In order to benefit the convict, criminal law should formulate a binding direction as well as individualizing punishment which bind all the criminal court. Moreover, there should also be a common understanding among law enforcers that punitive attitude should be balanced with curing attitude. Therefore, physical, substantial and cultural synchronization are needed. The physical synchronization can be conducted through synergy among law enforcers as part of the criminal justice system. The substantial synchronization can be realized through the availability of common understanding among law enforces.

Strategien der Bearbeitung sozialer Marginalität.

In recent literature state action strategies and collective sensibilities condense to complex regimes of dealing with deviance and marginality. Thereby, national practices of handling social difference combine with public sentiments and mentalities to form coherent cultures of social control. In this article we investigate whether homogeneous cultures of control can be observed in a sample of European countries. Cluster analysis identifies three distinct regimes of governing social marginality: (1) an inclusive regime wherein generous welfare provision and little incarceration merge with low levels of fear of crime and public punitiveness, against the backdrop of considerable trust in public institutions; (2) an exclusionary regime of modest welfare benefits and high imprisonment rates, wherein fear of crime, punitive attitudes and low confidence in governmental institutions are widespread; and (3) a hybrid regime in which inclusive and exclusionary elements form a fragile alliance. The inclusive regime can be found mainly in Scandinavia, the exclusionary regime is implemented particularly in Eastern Europe.

Managing the Socially Marginalized: Attitudes Toward Welfare, Punishment, and Race

Welfare and incarceration policies have converged to form a system of governance over socially marginalized groups, particularly racial minorities. In both of these policy areas, rehabilitative and social support objectives have been replaced with a more punitive and restrictive system. The authors examine the convergence in individual-level attitudes concerning welfare and criminal punishment, using national survey data. The authors' analysis indicates a statistically significant relationship between punitive attitudes toward welfare and punishment. Furthermore, accounting for the respondents' racial attitudes explains the bivariate relationship between welfare and punishment. Thus, racial attitudes seemingly link support for punitive approaches to opposition to welfare expenditures. The authors discuss the implications of this study for welfare and crime control policies by way of the conclusion.

Retribution as Revenge and Retribution as Just Deserts

Public attitudes towards law-breakers shape the tone and tenor of crime-control policy. The desire for retribution seems to be the main motivation underpinning punitive attitudes towards sentencing, yet there is some confusion in the research literature over what retribution really means. In this paper we distinguish between retribution as revenge (as the desire to punish criminal offenders to retaliate a past wrong by making the offender suffer) and retribution as just deserts (as the preference to restore justice through proportional compensation from the offender). Results from an online survey (n=176) provide evidence of two distinct dimensions of retribution, but we also show that these two dimensions have different ideological and motivational antecedents, and have different consequences in terms of the treatment of criminal offender. We find that retribution as revenge is associated with the motivation to enforce status boundaries with criminal offenders, as well as ideological preferences for power and dominance (as expressed by social dominance orientation) and in-group conformity (as expressed by right-wing authoritarianism). Endorsement of retribution as revenge also predicts the support of harsh punishment and the willingness to deny fair procedures. By contrast, retribution as just deserts is mainly predicted by a value restoration motive and by right-wing authoritarianism. After controlling for revenge, retribution as just deserts predicts support for procedural justice in the criminal courts. We conclude with the idea that beliefs about proportionality and compensation work as a buffer against the negative effects of revenge.

Authority and Punishment: On the Ideological Basis of Punitive Attitudes towards Criminals

Authority and Punishment: On the Ideological Basis of Punitive Attitudes towards Criminals

Unknown, Unloved? Public Opinion on and Knowledge of Suspended Sentences in the Netherlands

Public opinion research shows that the general public tends to perceive noncustodial sanctions, such as suspended sentences, as too lenient while being largely ignorant about their nature. In two studies among representative samples of the Dutch population, the authors examine public opinion about and knowledge of suspended sentences in the Netherlands. Findings suggest that knowledge of suspended sentences is positively related to their perceived punitiveness and beliefs in their effectiveness. Furthermore, opinions about suspended sentences are related to general penal attitudes. More punitive attitudes translate into less favorable opinions. Finally, providing information about suspended sentences can lead to more positive attitudes and greater belief in their effectiveness.