Ultimate Justice Research Articles

Вера в справедливый мир и психологическое благополучие у несовершеннолетних правонарушителей мужского пола

The study explores the characteristics of the relationship between the mental well-being and the belief in a just world among male juvenile offenders. 186 adolescents aged from 13 to 18 years (97 offenders and 89 law-abiding adolescents) were interviewed. Following methods were used for investigation of empirical constructs: “General Belief in a Just World Scale” (M. Schmitt, L. Montada, C. Dalbert), “General Belief in a Unjust World Scale” (J. Maes), “Belief in Immanent Justice Scale» (J. Maes)”, “General Belief in a Unjust World Scale Belief in Ultimate Justice Scale” (J. Maes), “5-Dimensional Belief in a Just Treatment Scale” (K. Stroebe), “Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale” (R. Tennart). Revealed that mental well-being of law-abiding adolescents is positively associated with only two sources of justice: belief in God – for common destiny and belief in self as the source of justice for personal and common destiny. Offenders’ mental well-being is accompanied by an extensive complex of positive relations with beliefs in general, immanent, ultimate justice and also by belief in a diversity of sources of justice (God, nature, other people, self and chance). The study also shown that offenders’ mental well-being is positively associated with belief in an unjust world.

ADAM SMITH ON JUSTICE, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND ULTIMATE JUSTICE

Abstract:Adam Smith argues that virtue falls into two broad categories: “justice,” which he calls a “negative” virtue because it principally comprises restraint from harming or injuring others; and “beneficence,” which he calls “positive” because it comprises the actions we ought to take to improve others’ situations. Smith’s conception of justice is thus quite “thin,” and some critics argue that it is indeed too thin, since it fails to incorporate substantive concerns for the well-being of others. In this essay, I lay out Smith’s conception of justice and offer a way to understand it that attempts to comprehend the various things he says about it. I then offer a cluster of objections drawing on criticisms that might fall under the heading of “social justice.” Finally, I suggest how Smith might respond to the criticisms by outlining a Smithian conception of what I call “ultimate justice.”

RECONCILIATION WITHOUT JUSTICE? AN ANALYSIS OF THE FILM, RECONCILIATION IN ZIMBABWE, THE FIRST TEN YEARS

The aim of this article is to explore the idea of reconciliation and justice in the documentary film, Reconciliation in Zimbabwe, the first ten years (1990). This film is one of the very first and few films to deal with the themes of reconciliation and justice from the perspective of the moving image. At the centre of the film narrative is how different political constituents in Zimbabwe between 1980 and 1990 think about the question of reconciliation and the possibility of ultimate justice. Coming immediately after the war, the film debates the varied and diverse expectations of Zimbabwean whites and blacks, and the role of memory in relationship to the new politics of tolerance proposed by the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The article argues that the significance of the film lies in the desire to balance hotly contested perspectives on what constitutes reconciliation and justice in Zimbabwe.

Two Types of Justice Reasoning About Good Fortune and Misfortune: A Replication and Beyond

While research into justice reasoning has progressed extensively, the findings and implications have been mainly limited to Western cultures. This study investigated the relationship between immanent and ultimate justice reasoning about others’ misfortune and good fortune in Japanese participants. The effects of goal focus and religiosity, which previously have been found to foster justice reasoning, were also tested. Participants were randomly assigned to one condition of a 2 (goal focus: long term or short term) × 2 (target person’s moral value: respected or thief) × 2 (type of luck: misfortune or good fortune) design. For immanent justice reasoning, the results revealed that a “bad” person’s misfortune was attributed to their past misdeeds, while a “good” person’s good fortune was attributed to their past good deeds. Regarding ultimate justice reasoning, it was found that a good person’s misfortune was connected more to future compensation than their good fortune, whereas a bad person’s misfortune was not reasoned about using ultimate justice. There was no significant effect of religiosity or goal focus on justice reasoning, which is inconsistent with the findings of previous studies. The necessity of directly examining cultural differences is discussed in relation to extending and strengthening the theory of justice reasoning.

Вера в справедливый мир как коррелят психологического благополучия подростков

Article presents research of relationship of Belief in a Just World and Psychological well-being of adolescents. 212 adolescents aged from 13 to 18 years in schools and secondary specialized educational institutions of Voronezh were surveyed. Following methods were used for investigation of empirical constructs: “General Belief in a Just World Scale” (M. Schmitt, L. Montada, C. Dalbert), “General Belief in a Unjust World Scale” (J. Maes), “Belief in Immanent Justice Scale” (J. Maes), “Belief in Ultimate Justice Scale” (J. Maes), “5-Dimensional Belief in a Just Treatment Scale” (K. Stroebe), “Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale” (R. Tennart). Revealed that adolescents’ psychological well-being is positively correlated with General Belief in a Just World and its species: Belief in Immanent and Ultimate justice. It is also positively correlated with Belief in God, Nature, other people and Self-concept as sources of justice. We compared the ratio of Belief in a Just and an Unjust world in adolescents with different levels of psychological well-being. We found that psychologically advantaged adolescents’ Belief in an Unjust world is balanced by Belief in Ultimate justice; adolescents with low level of psychological well-being believe that the world is mostly unjust. This work was supported by grant RFH № 15-36-01233.

Beliefs in the end of the world, justice, religiosity and system preservation: a psychological study of how the ‘end of the world’ could match common belief systems

While historical research has shown that Beliefs in the End of the World (BEW) are present in human culture, no psychological study has yet explored why people endorse one BEW rather than another. The aim of this study is to understand how the BEWs are linked to other beliefs. Three BEWs were studied: Human Deserved End of the World (HDEW) (ecological view of the end of the world); AOW (an external and total end of the world); and Religious End of the World (RSEW) (end of the world caused by a God). Several common beliefs were hypothetically linked to them: Immanent and Ultimate Justice (two dimensions of the Belief in a Just World [BJW]); System Justification (SJ); and Religiosity. Eight hundred and eighty-one participants answered our questionnaires on general Internet forums. Results showed that: (1) HDEW is explained positively by Immanent Justice and negatively by SJs; (2) Annihilation of the World (AOW) is explained negatively by Ultimate Justice and Religiosity, and positively by SJ; and (3) RSEW is explained positively by Religiosity and Ultimate Justice. Justice, Religiosity and preservation of one’s way of life (SJ) seem to be ways to cope with the symbolic threat that is represented by the End of the World. Some perspectives for a psychological study of BEWs are presented.

被害者非難と加害者の非人間化――2種類の公正世界信念との関連――

This study defined Belief in Just World (BJW) multidimensionally and investigated the effects of Belief in Immanent Justice (BIJ) and Belief in Ultimate Justice (BUJ) on victim derogation and draconian punishment of perpetrators. Study 1 tested the validity of the multidimensional structure of BJW and demonstrated relationships between BJW and other psychological variables. In Study 2, we measured the reactions to the victim and perpetrator in an injury case reported in a news.article, and evaluated the relationships of these reactions to BIJ and BUJ. The results revealed that BIJ was associated with a preference in draconian punishment of the perpetrator, while BUJ was associated with dissociation from the victim (a type of victim derogation). In addition, as hypothesized, we found that dehumanization of the perpetrator partially mediated the relationship between BIJ and victim derogation. We discussed relationships between the two types of BJW and just-world maintenance strategies in the situation where a victim and a perpetrator are both recognized.

Getting ‘just deserts’ or seeing the ‘silver lining’: The relation between judgements of immanent and ultimate justice

Getting ‘just deserts’ or seeing the ‘silver lining’: The relation between judgements of immanent and ultimate justice

Getting "just deserts" or seeing the "silver lining": the relation between judgments of immanent and ultimate justice.

People can perceive misfortunes as caused by previous bad deeds (immanent justice reasoning) or resulting in ultimate compensation (ultimate justice reasoning). Across two studies, we investigated the relation between these types of justice reasoning and identified the processes (perceptions of deservingness) that underlie them for both others (Study 1) and the self (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that observers engaged in more ultimate (vs. immanent) justice reasoning for a “good” victim and greater immanent (vs. ultimate) justice reasoning for a “bad” victim. In Study 2, participants' construals of their bad breaks varied as a function of their self-worth, with greater ultimate (immanent) justice reasoning for participants with higher (lower) self-esteem. Across both studies, perceived deservingness of bad breaks or perceived deservingness of ultimate compensation mediated immanent and ultimate justice reasoning respectively.

How Much Does Effortful Thinking Underlie Observers’ Reactions to Victimization?

From blaming to helping innocent victims, just-world research has revealed that observers react to victimization in a variety of ways. Recent research suggests that such responses to victimization require effortful thought, whereas other research has shown that people can react to these situations intuitively. Along with manipulating just-world threat, across seven experiments, we manipulated or measured participants’ level of mental processing before assessing judgments of victim derogation, blame, willingness to help, and ultimate justice reasoning. The effect of just-world threat on these responses held constant over a range of manipulations/measures, suggesting that the processes involved in maintaining a belief in a just world are not restricted to the rational, deliberative level of mental processing but also occur intuitively.

The role of religiosity in ultimate and immanent justice reasoning

Religious teachings endorse notions of ultimate justice (a misfortune is compensated in the long run) and immanent justice (a misfortune is caused by previous misdeeds). The current research examined whether individual differences in observers’ religiosity moderated ultimate and immanent justice reasoning in response to an unfortunate accident that occurred to either a good or bad person. Results showed that participants higher in religiosity perceived greater ultimate justice for the victim regardless of his moral worth. Participants higher in religiosity engaged in greater immanent justice reasoning when the victim was bad, but not when he was good. Perceived deservingness of the accident mediated the effect of the victim’s moral worth on immanent justice attributions more strongly among participants higher in religiosity.

Persecution and the Purpose of Revelation with Reference to Roman Jurisprudence

Abstract The idea that persecution against Christians in Asia Minor is background for the book of Revelation is commonly questioned in current scholarship. There is simply not any compelling evidence to support an official imperial persecution at the time of composition. As a result, one popular view is to interpret the references to persecution in rhetorical terms to create a sense of perceived persecution. This view maintains that there was no real persecution or that John may have exaggerated the feelings of persecution to emphasize his message. However, it is possible that Christians in Asia Minor experienced some form of a threat of persecution. The particular avenue for persecution came in the form of jurisprudence. This scenario is one in which tensions with opponents could have escalated to the point where the Christians may have been denounced before provincial magistrates. If placed on trial, Christians likely would have received an unfavorable outcome because as a group they lacked legal protection and had a tendency for the exclusive worship of Christ. The threat of standing trial for some aspect related to Christian faith and practice, set against the backdrop of the imperial cult, created type of crisis for believers in certain communities. John presented his vision of God's ultimate justice and vindication as a means to promote fidelity to Christ even if it entails suffering temporary injustice.

Chaucer the Forester:

Chaucer the Forester:

Belief in a Just World, Religiosity and Victim Blaming

This study investigates the relations between “Belief in a Just World” (BJW), religiosity and victim-blaming attitudes. In particular, the influence of BJW and religiosity on social attitudes is probed. Recent theoretical and psychometric developments in the BJW construct are considered. Thus, 176 Turkish subjects completed measures for BJW-Self (BJW-S)/BJW-Other (BJW-O), “Belief in Immanent/Ultimate Justice,” attitudes towards the poor, and religiosity. Results show that Belief in Ultimate Justice and BJW-S are uniquely related to religiosity. As hypothesized, BJW-O and Belief in Immanent Justice are strongly related to harsh attitudes towards the poor. However, contrary to our expectation, results do not indicate a positive link between religiosity and negative attitudes towards the poor. Study findings also provide strong cross-cultural support for the conceptual and psychometric revisions of the Just-World construct (BJW-S/BJW-O and Immanent/Ultimate Justice).

Belief in a just world and subjective well‐being: Mothers of normal and Down syndrome children

A cross-sectional study examined the relationship between three dimensions of the belief in a just world and the subjective well-being of Pakistani mothers of normal and Down syndrome children (n = 100 each). Personal belief in a just world and two dimensions of general belief in a just world-beliefs in immanent and ultimate justice-were assessed along with four dimensions of subjective well-being: life satisfaction, mood, state anxiety, and depression. It was hypothesized that personal belief in a just world and belief in ultimate justice would be positively associated with subjective well-being for both groups of mothers. Results were obtained through moderated regression analyses. In line with our hypothesis, personal belief in a just world positively predicted life satisfaction and mood level and negatively predicted state anxiety and depression in both groups of mothers. In contrast, beliefs in immanent and ultimate justice were not consistently adaptive. In particular, the more the mothers of a Down syndrome child believed in immanent justice, the more anxiety they experienced the previous week. In addition, the more the mothers of normal children believed in ultimate justice, the more they experienced anxiety. The pattern of results persisted when controlled for mothers' education, the total number of their children and marital status. Overall, the results support the role of personal belief in a just world as a personal resource in adverse as well as normal life circumstances.

Religion and Helping: Impact of Target Thinking Styles and Just-World Beliefs

Previous research on religion and helping has left some questions unanswered. In the present study, participants expressed willingness to help groups of people in need (homeless people and illegal immigrants), and this after having been religiously versus non-religiously stimulated. The activation of religious context increased the willingness to help, but only the homeless. Orthodox religious people tended to consider the targets responsible for their problem, an association partially mediated by the belief in a just world for other. Symbolic thinking was associated with willingness for helping, an association partially mediated by the belief in ultimate justice. Results suggest a limited (target) and conditional (thinking style, just world beliefs) prosociality as a consequence of religion.

Ultimate Justice and The American Legal System

Ultimate Justice and The American Legal System

Restorative Justice and the Jewish Question

While the particular languages of our differing religious traditions do not seem to me to be good bases for a public criminal law, they are useful for considering familiar issues in an unfamiliar light. I therefore offer a reading of a set of unfamiliar texts from the Talmud, one of the foundational texts of the Jewish tradition, to make two basic points about criminal law with some applicability to the restorative justice debate. At the same time, their language and structure should illustrate how disparate our traditions are. First, criminal law should have a limited, nontranscendental goal. Torah law, like some of the more religious manifestations of restorative justice, claims divine authority and aims at ultimate justice - but the Jewish texts demonstrate that consistent working out of that view leads to the conclusion that ideal criminal law is impossible for humans to administer. In our democratic state, our goals should be less lofty; but the Jewish law experience suggests, I argue, that we nonetheless ought to be wary of the hubris inherent in any criminal law. Second, the Jewish law debate provides an alternative justification for the restorative justice emphasis on mediation and mutual agreement. Criminal law, in the end, must be defended on empirical grounds: primarily that it works to reduce crime and secondarily that it mitigates the pain caused by crime it fails to prevent. The historical experience of Jewish law's attempts to substitute mediation for coercion offer qualified support for the community-based mediation techniques of some versions of restorative justice. Mediation and compromise can be based in the spirit of humility that is appropriate when humans try to judge things that, in an ideal world, would not be judged by those of only human abilities. In short, this Article attempts to demonstrate the futility of particularist, religious-law based criminal law, using itself the language and traditions of a particular religious law system. If it succeeds, it will simultaneously illustrate the universality of the underlying concerns and the particularity of the language in which we debate them.

Justice Beliefs in School: Distinguishing Ultimate and Immanent Justice

This paper combines two recent developments in just world research: the conception of belief in a just world (BJW) as a resource for coping and well-being in everyday life, and the distinction between two different facets of BJW, namely belief in immanent justice (BIJ) and belief in ultimate justice (BUJ). Moreover, these two aspects are adapted to the school context and educational psychology. Scales for measuring ultimate and immanent justice in schools were developed within a German pilot reform project with a sample of 1274 pupils. The two facets could be distinguished by means of factor analysis. The reliability of the two scales is satisfactory, and their validity is confirmed by their differential correlational patterns. Results show that not every form of BJW automatically functions as a coping resource. In fact, only BUJ is able to protect pupils' mental well-being, whereas immanent justice can actually jeopardize well-being. Similarly, BUJ is associated with the perception of solidarity and learning enjoyment in class, whereas BIJ is more closely associated with the experience of rivalry and competition in class. Finally, the socialization of the two justice beliefs is considered. The cross-sectional data provide some evidence to suggest that friendly and supportive parenting styles can promote BUJ, whereas strict parenting styles may further BIJ. More longitudinal research is needed to obtain further insights into these phenomena.

Beliefs in justice and faith in people: just world, religiosity and interpersonal trust

Abstract Fifty-eight French subjects (28 women and 30 men, 16–65 years) from diverse occupational status completed Belief in a Just World Scales for Self and Others [Lipkus, I. M., & Bissonnette, V. L. (1996). Relationships among belief in a just world, willingness to accomodate, and marital well being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 22 (10), 1043–1056.] Belief in Immanent and Ultimate Justice Scales [Maes, J. (1998). Immanent justice and ultimate justice: two ways of believing in justice. In L. Montada, & M. J. Lerner, Responses to victimizations and belief in a just world (pp. 9–40). New York: Plenum Press], and a measure of Interpersonal Trust adapted from Wrightsman [Wrightsman, L. (1991). Interpersonal trust and attitudes toward human nature. In J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver, & L. S. Wrightsman, Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes (pp. 373–412). New York: Academic Press]. Religious commitment was also measured. As hypothesized, results indicated that Belief in a Just World (BJW) for Self, BJW for Others and religious commitment were positively correlated with Interpersonal trust ( r =0.51, 0.54 and 0.34). No gender differences appeared on any scale. A regression analysis indicated that BJW for Others and religious commitment accounted for 36% of explained variance in the prediction of interpersonal trust.