Dealing With Offenders: Popular Opinion and the Views of Victims in England and Wales (From Public Attitudes to Sentencing, P 134-148, 1988, Nigel Walker and Mike Hough, eds. -- See NCJ-114405)

• NCJ Number: 114410
• Author(s): M Hough; D Moxon
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Avebury Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Revised version of an article in the Howard Journal, V 24, N 3 (1985), P 160-175.

Annotation

This 1984 survey examined attitudes of the general public and of crime victims toward punishment of offenders in England and Wales.

Abstract

Results indicate that the public perceives the courts to be more lenient in sentencing burglars than they actually are, and that public attitudes about appropriate sentences are broadly in line with actual practices. There was some public support for diversion of minor offenders from the court process. The principle of reparation by offenders, either to individual victims or the wider community, also has some public support, and support by victims in particular. Older people and manual laborers and their families have more punitive attitudes than younger individuals and nonmanual workers. Those who are most fearful of criminal victimization tend to favor harsher sentences. In general, victims of crime are no more punitive than nonvictims, but victims suffering greater harm were more punitive than those suffering lesser harm. These findings suggest that policymakers and the courts can treat with a degree of skepticism claims made by the media that public opinion demands a tougher stance on crime. There was no evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with sentencing practices among the public, although support for more lenient sentencing and satisfaction with the criminal justice system might be greater if the public had more accurate information about actual practice. 5 tables, 2 notes, and 15 references.