Public Perceptions of Work-Related Fatality Cases: Reaching the Outer Limits of "Populist Punitiveness"?

• NCJ Number: 224340
• Journal: British Journal of Criminology Volume: 48 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2008 Pages: 448-467
• Author(s): Paul Almond
• Date Published: July 2008
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study examined attitudes of the British public toward work-related fatality cases, with attention to the public’s view of the severity of these cases and the link between severity perceptions, attitudes toward punishment, and preferred sentencing outcomes in such cases.

Abstract

The study found that the public regarded work-related fatalities as serious and significant events that impact upon perceptions of risk and change behaviors. The most serious of the cases presented to respondents (usually those involving multiple victims) were regarded as extremely serious, prompting expressions of anger and concern. These attitudes supported the existence of punitive populist accounts of the risk-intolerance and insecurity that characterize public attitudes and concerns within the criminal justice sphere. Still, the respondents’ punishment preferences were rational and reasoned, and their emotional responses were primarily regretful rather than vengeful. The desire to condemn and punish offenders’ conduct was counterbalanced by recognition of the need for humane, just penal policies that achieved a positive social purpose. Fourteen members of the public were selected for the study from responses to advertisements posted in public buildings during August-September 2006. A subsequent phone interview was conducted in order to ensure demographic variety within the sample and to ensure that a range of normative opinions about crime and justice were represented. Interviews lasted approximately 1 hour and were structured to allow discussion of four exemplar case vignettes. The vignettes outlined the circumstances of work-related fatality cases that had occurred in England and Wales. The cases provided a balance between successful and unsuccessful manslaughter prosecutions, between cases that involved single and multiple fatalities, and between small and large companies. 49 references