NCJ Number
226774
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 37 Issue: 2 Dated: March/April 2009 Pages: 155-162
Date Published
April 2009
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article examined differing attitudes about electronic monitoring between minorities and non-minorities.
Abstract
Findings demonstrate some important associations between racial group membership and attitudes toward electronic monitoring: attitudinal differences exist between minorities and non-minorities, and much of these differences can be attributed to perceptions about the inequality that minorities see in the application of the electronic monitoring sanction. These findings are significant for six reasons: 1) punishment scholars have long recognized that society’s attitudes about punishment are an indicator of the nature of society at a given moment in time; 2) understanding the differences in the way groups perceive electronic monitoring provides policymakers with information needed to develop public awareness campaigns; 3) given the current recognition that culturally competent service provision is a necessity in criminal justice administration, probation and parole officers must be aware of culturally influenced attitudes about various sanctions they administer; 4) findings which provide a baseline from which practitioners and researchers can determine differences in the way offenders experience punishment and are tied to their differences in the perception of the punishment; 5) sanctions that are perceived as too lenient and not retributive or punitive may have little potential to deter misconduct; and 6) understanding how sanctions are perceived provides valuable information to determine whether increased use of particular sanctions will meet opposition from the public. Data were collected from 599 students at 2 universities located in southeastern Virginia. Tables and references