Department of Psychology.
J Exp Psychol Appl. 2021 Jun;27(2):430-446. doi: 10.1037/xap0000339. Epub 2021 Mar 29.
While research has shown magnitude of harm drives punishment decisions for crimes resulting in a prison sentence, many states impose probation rather than incarceration. A two-session experiment investigated how punishment type influences sentence length decisions. In session 1,347 participants answered online questions about their support for punishment justifications (i.e., retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation). In session 2, the online participants read a randomly assigned scenario about a clerk who stole either a smaller or larger amount of money from his employer (magnitude of harm), which the employer was either likely or unlikely to detect (detection), and the clerk received either a term of prison or probation (type of punishment). Results revealed that magnitude of harm influenced punishment severity and sentence length judgments despite participants' self-reported support for retribution as a justification showing no influence. Punishment type also affected sentence length decisions. Furthermore, punishment severity judgments mediated the effect of the magnitude of harm on sentence length after controlling for punishment justifications but only in the probation condition, showing demand for harsher punishment was greater for probation. Thus, we concluded that the retribution motive is prevalent if offenders with a more severe crime receive probation rather than a prison sentence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
虽然研究表明，犯罪造成监禁的危害程度会影响惩罚决定，但许多州会选择缓刑而非监禁。一项两阶段实验研究了惩罚类型如何影响刑期决策。在第一阶段，347 名参与者在线回答了有关惩罚理由（报应、威慑、剥夺能力和康复）的支持程度的问题。在第二阶段，在线参与者阅读了一个随机分配的场景，内容是一名职员从雇主那里偷了或多或少的钱（危害程度），雇主要么很可能要么不太可能发现（检测），而职员要么被判入狱要么缓刑（惩罚类型）。结果表明，尽管参与者自我报告的报应作为一种惩罚理由没有影响，但危害程度仍会影响惩罚严厉程度和刑期判断。惩罚类型也会影响刑期决策。此外，在控制了惩罚理由后，惩罚严厉程度判断中介了危害程度对刑期的影响，但仅在缓刑条件下，显示出对缓刑的需求更加严厉。因此，我们得出结论，如果罪行更严重的罪犯被判缓刑而不是入狱，那么报应动机就很普遍。
