NCJ Number
168988
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1997) Pages: 87-114
Date Published
1997
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study used data from a survey of Florida juvenile court judges to examine support for punitive sanctioning ideologies.
Abstract
The population for the study consisted of all Florida circuit judges assigned to the juvenile bench (n=75). During August and September 1992, each judge was sent an eight-page questionnaire. Fifty-three judges returned usable questionnaires; the respondents ranged in age from 37 to 69. Because the survey was designed in part to assess judges' reaction to a variety of juvenile justice reforms recently implemented in Florida, the questionnaire included a number of items that related to attitudes toward sanctioning and dispositional options. Indicators of professional orientation (ideological influences) used as independent variables in the study included support for treatment and services, support for a victim emphasis, commitment to due process, and degree of opposition to restrictions on judges' discretion over detention intake. Descriptive findings show strong support for both incapacitation and specific deterrence ideologies and somewhat weaker commitment to retributive motivations for punishing juvenile offenders. In an effort to account for variation in judges' sanctioning attitudes, the study compared three alternative explanatory models: organizational environment, individual experiences importation, and ideological influences. Multiple regression results failed to establish strong support for any of these models. One independent variable, however, victim emphasis, exerted a strong negative effect on retributive orientation and support for the incapacitation goal, but a moderate positive influence on specific deterrence. 4 tables and 67 references