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Support for Harsh Criminal Sanctions and Criminal Justice Beliefs: A Social Dominance Perspective

NCJ Number
216758
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 433-449
Author(s)
Jim Sidanius; Michael Mitchell; Hillary Haley; Carlos David Navarrete
Date Published
December 2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study investigated whether support for group-based social inequality and hierarchy was positively related to support for harsh criminal sanctions and dominant criminal justice beliefs.
Abstract
Results indicated that support for group-based social inequality (dominance) was positively correlated with support for all three types of harsh criminal sanctions as well as support for the dominant criminal justice beliefs that are used to justify criminal justice practices. The findings also revealed that support for harsh criminal sanctions was at least partly motivated by the desire to establish and maintain group-based dominance, which was then justified in terms of moral norms such as retribution and/or causal beliefs such as the belief in deterrence. Participants were undergraduate students who participated to fulfill a course requirement. Participants completed a Likert-type questionnaire measuring three criminal justice beliefs: (1) belief in general deterrence; (2) belief in specific deterrence; and (3) belief in retribution. The questionnaire also measured support for harsh criminal sanctions (support for the death penalty, general punitiveness, and support for torture) and support for group-based dominance and social hierarchy. Structural equation models were used to analyze the relationship between support for group-based dominance and support for harsh criminal sanctions. Future research should examine whether criminal justice practices contribute to the production and maintenance of group-based dominance. Table, figures, references

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