Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA.
Law Hum Behav. 2013 Aug;37(4):276-89. doi: 10.1037/lhb0000031. Epub 2013 May 6.
Twice in recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has considered the constitutionality of life sentences without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for juvenile offenders. Given the public nature of this issue, there is scant information on beliefs about imposing LWOP on juveniles. Attitudes on related issues suggest two possibilities. On the one hand, because public opinion regarding juvenile offenders has become somewhat less punitive recently, LWOP may be viewed as excessively harsh punishment. On the other hand, portrayal of some juvenile offenders as superpredators suggests that LWOP may still have public support. We used survey methodology and the unique "ninth justice paradigm" to examine how an offender's age influences beliefs about the appropriateness of LWOP, and the relationship between those beliefs and punishment-related ideologies. Results showed that, except in the case of murder, the majority of respondents disfavored imposing LWOP on juveniles, though a subset approved broad use of LWOP even for young offenders. In fact, after removing from consideration those who oppose LWOP under any circumstances, youthfulness of the offender has little impact on the beliefs about the types of crimes in which LWOP should be imposed (Study 1) or the mean sentence lengths imposed on juvenile offenders (Study 2). Respondents' punishment goals influenced their attitudes, as did beliefs about the likelihood of rehabilitation and reform. Harsh judgments of juveniles who commit serious crimes may result from dispositional attributions of youthful offenders as irredeemable.
近年来，美国最高法院两次审议了对少年犯判处无期徒刑且不得假释（LWOP）的合宪性问题。鉴于这个问题的公开性质，关于对少年犯判处 LWOP 的信念的信息很少。关于相关问题的态度表明了两种可能性。一方面，由于公众对少年犯的看法最近变得不那么严厉了，LWOP 可能被视为过于严厉的惩罚。另一方面，一些少年犯被描绘成超级掠夺者，这表明 LWOP 可能仍然得到公众的支持。我们使用调查方法和独特的“第九大法官范式”来研究罪犯的年龄如何影响对 LWOP 适当性的看法，以及这些看法与惩罚相关意识形态之间的关系。结果表明，除谋杀罪外，大多数受访者不赞成对少年犯判处 LWOP，尽管有一部分人赞成广泛使用 LWOP，即使是对年轻罪犯。事实上，在不考虑任何情况下都反对 LWOP 的人之后，罪犯的年轻程度对应该判处 LWOP 的犯罪类型的信念（研究 1）或对少年犯判处的平均刑期（研究 2）几乎没有影响。受访者的惩罚目标影响了他们的态度，对康复和改革可能性的信念也是如此。对犯下严重罪行的少年的严厉判断可能源于对年轻罪犯不可救药的性格归因。
