Brubacher Michael R
University of Johannesburg.
J Exp Psychol Appl. 2019 Mar;25(1):129-147. doi: 10.1037/xap0000201. Epub 2018 Nov 29.
Public opinion can play a role in shaping punishment policies. A problem can arise, however, in that public opinion about appropriate punishments may vary depending on whether offenders in general or individual offenders are being considered. It has been argued that, for offenders in general, the public is concerned with protecting the social group at large, while for individual offenders, public attention is directed more toward the individual offender. However, this proposition has not been thoroughly tested. In 3 studies, participants rated their support for 3 punishment goals: proportional retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. Participants also rated the personal importance of 5 different moral concerns from the field of moral psychology: 3 group-level moral concerns and 2 individual-level concerns. The results show that the group-level moral concerns predicted support for the punishment goals more strongly when offenders in general were being considered than when individual offenders were being considered. In contrast, the individual-level moral concerns predicted support for the punishment goals more strongly when individual offenders were being considered than when offenders in general were being considered. Finally, support for incapacitation, in particular, changed between conditions and was lower when individual offenders were being considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
公众舆论在塑造惩罚政策方面可以发挥作用。然而，可能会出现一个问题，即关于适当惩罚的公众舆论可能会因考虑的是一般罪犯还是个别罪犯而有所不同。有人认为，对于一般罪犯，公众关注的是保护整个社会群体，而对于个别罪犯，公众的注意力更多地指向个别罪犯。然而，这一命题尚未得到充分验证。在三项研究中，参与者对他们对三种惩罚目标的支持程度进行了评分：相称报应、威慑和剥夺能力。参与者还对道德心理学领域中五种不同道德关切的个人重要性进行了评分：三种群体层面的道德关切和两种个人层面的关切。结果表明，当考虑一般罪犯时，群体层面的道德关切比考虑个别罪犯时更能强烈地预测对惩罚目标的支持。相比之下，当考虑个别罪犯时，个人层面的道德关切比考虑一般罪犯时更能强烈地预测对惩罚目标的支持。最后，特别是对剥夺能力的支持在不同条件下有所变化，并且在考虑个别罪犯时较低。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2019美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
