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Description: Early attribution research suggests that those who view criminal acts as highly internal, controllable, and stable tend to support more severe and retributive punishment. This study aims to further examine how laypeople's attributions for crime relate to their perceptions of responsibility, emotions, punishment goals, and prison reform attitudes. Participants completed surveys with one of five criminal conviction scenarios. Correlational analyses and a path model provided support for links between internal and controllable attributions, high levels of anger and blame, retributive punishment purposes, and judgments against reform funding. Those with higher prison system knowledge and the politically liberal agreed more that prison system change is necessary. The potential use of these data for prison reform activists is considered.
Suggested Citation:
O'Toole, M. J., & Sahar, G. (2014). The effects of attributions for crime on attitudes toward prison reform [Electronic Version]. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice,
10(1), 46-65.
Keywords: attribution theory, attitude formation, prison reform, incarceration
Date: May 02, 2014 | File Size: 1174.12 Kb | Downloads: 1894