Does the Severity of Sentences Affect Public Disapproval? An Experiment in England (From Public Attitudes to Sentencing, P 56-83, 1988, Nigel Walker and Mike Hough, eds. -- See NCJ-14405)

• NCJ Number: 114407
• Author(s): N Walker; C Marsh
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Avebury Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Revised version of an article originally published in the British Journal of Criminology, V 24, N 1 (1984), P 27-48

Annotation

Interviews were conducted with over 1,000 parents in England to examine attitudes toward sentencing practices in general and in specific cases from the press.

Abstract

Results indicate that only a substantial minority of respondents were interested in news media reports about criminal trials and not all of this minority could recall particular cases to the extent of remembering the sentences imposed. For the great majority, a prison sentence stands for toughness, while a somewhat smaller majority regarded probation as a mild sanction. Comparison of the sentences respondents felt offenders should have received with what they expected the sentence to have been suggests that many respondents have little respect for the sentencing system. Information about judicial disapproval of a sanction did not influence respondents' disapproval, even in a morally ambiguous case. Peer disapproval did influence respondents' disapproval, but only in a morally ambiguous case. Information on the severity of a sanction for an offense did not significantly affect respondents' disapproval of the offense. On the whole respondents seemed to make up their own minds about the culpability of offenses reported in the press. 5 tables, 21 notes, and 8 references.