NCJ Number
186844
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 24 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2000 Pages: 659-683
Date Published
December 2000
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Two experimental studies examined the role of incapacitation and just deserts as motivations for a person’s desire to punish persons who commit intentional harms counter to norms.
Abstract
The 54 university students who participated in the first study read a series of 10 criminal cases. The 83 undergraduates in the second study completed a questionnaire designed to determine how an offender’s brain tumor influenced their assessments of the appropriate punishment. The research participants assigned punishments to actors whose offenses were varied with respect to the moral seriousness of the offense and the likelihood that the perpetrator would commit similar future offenses. Results revealed that participants increased the punishment as the seriousness of the offense increased. However, variations in the likelihood of committing future offenses did not affect their sentences. This finding suggested that just deserts was the primary sentencing motive. The only case in which participants desired to incarcerate the individual to prevent future harms rather than assigning a punishment based on just deserts was the case in which the cause of the individual’s violent action was a brain tumor. Figures, tables, appended case summaries and methodological information, and 23 references (Author abstract modified)