NCJ Number
102000
Journal
Sociological Spectrum Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: (1986) Pages: 179-209
Date Published
1986
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This study compares the ability of selected psychological and sociological factors to predict the level of punitive criminal sanction supported by a community's residents.
Abstract
A sample of 121 respondents from a rural community in the Southwest were surveyed. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 87, with the median being 35 years. Within the group, 58 percent were women and two-thirds were Caucasians. Interviewers asked respondents to read descriptions of 15 criminal acts, told them only that the individual accused was guilty, and then asked them to assign appropriate sanctions. Before requesting the sanctioning information, interviewers assessed respondents' personalities with regard to social condemnation and authoritarianism. The results showed little support for the link between authoritarianism and specific sanctioning endorsements. On the other hand, the sociological construct of normative outliners, based on the Durkheimian tradition of social condemnation, proved to be the much more useful construct. Footnotes, tables, and approximately 75 references. (Author abstract modified)