Three Decades of Public Attitudes Research on Crime and Punishment in Canada

Varma, Kimberly N.; Marinos, Voula

doi:10.3138/cjccj.2012.es01

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…It has also been suggested that to reform public opinion about general punishment policies, the justice system should do more to engage and educate the public (Roberts, 1992). In this regard, it has been proposed that one way to reduce support for punitive policies is to remind the public about the human characteristics and individuality of actual offenders (Indermaur, 1987; Varma & Marinos, 2013). The results of the present studies provide empirical support for this argument.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral concerns, criminal punishment, and whether offenders in general or individual offenders are being considered.

Brubacher¹

2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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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. Public Significance StatementThese studies suggest that incarceration receives more third-party support when offenders in general are being considered than when individual offenders are being considered. Further, moral concerns about protecting the larger social group may be more strongly related to views about punishment when offenders in general are being considered than when individual offenders are being considered, while the opposite is true for moral concerns about how individuals should be treated.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral concerns, criminal punishment, and whether offenders in general or individual offenders are being considered.

Brubacher¹

2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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“…For instance, the omnibus crime bill Safe Streets and Community Act was tabled in the months before the 2011 election that resulted in a Conservative majority mandate. The bill faced deep criticism because buried in its 110 pages was a fundamental shift in the federal government's approach to crime (Brennan, 2012; CCLA, 2010: 1; Cook and Roesch, 2012; Doob, 2014; Statistics Canada, 2011; Varma and Marinos, 2013).…”

Section: Legislative Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

Neoliberalism, Authoritarian-Populism, and the “Photo-Op Democracy” of the Publicity State: Changes to Legislative and Parliamentary Norms by the Harper Government

Brabazon

Kozolanka

2018

Can J Pol Sci

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Several recent reports seek to evaluate the impact of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Canadian democracy by documenting his government's efforts to curtail established democratic processes and mechanisms for public debate. However, this article uses examples of the Harper government's changes to legislative and parliamentary norms to demonstrate that this government's efforts to curtail multi-directional public debate were importantly accompanied by efforts to amplify unidirectional communication of the government's partisan messages. The paper finds that this corresponding emphasis on communication exemplified a “photo-op” approach to democracy, which highlights points of compatibility between the seemingly contradictory authoritarian-populist “publicity state” and neoliberal democratic ideals. This research demonstrates the necessity of attention to government communication in analysis of the Harper government's impact on the Canadian public sphere. It also illustrates the pragmatic rather than doctrinaire nature of New Right politics in Canada and the affinity between neoliberal and authoritarian-populist approaches to governance.

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“…It is well-known that providing the public with more information about specific cases improves people’s confidence in the fairness of the criminal justice system and elicits less punitive responses (Cullen et al, 2000; Gelb, 2006; Roberts and Hough, 2005; Varma and Marinos, 2013; Warner et al, 2017). However, providing research participants with sufficient information to elicit truly informed opinion can be challenging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juror and community views of the guilty plea sentencing discount: Findings from a national Australian study

Warner

Spiranovic

Bartels

et al. 2020

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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A plea of guilty is a long-accepted factor mitigating sentence in many countries, including Australia, although academic debate over the merits and application of the discount is ongoing. This paper presents findings from a national Australian study on public opinion on the guilty plea sentencing discount, with a particular focus on sexual offences. Survey data were drawn from 989 jurors in cases that resulted in a guilty verdict and 450 unempanelled jurors and 306 online respondents who were provided with vignettes based on real cases. A third of the respondents would have supported a discount in their case if the offender had pleaded guilty. In contrast, more than one half of the respondents surveyed, who had received a vignette with a guilty plea scenario, supported an increment in sentence if the offender had gone to trial. There was more support for a discount in cases involving non-sexual violent offences versus sexual offences and adult versus child victims. Where a discount was supported, this most commonly was a reduction in the length of custodial sentence, with online respondents allocating the least generous discounts. Willingness to accept a sentencing discount was predicted by a range of variables including gender, education, punitive attitudes, offence type and offence seriousness. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for sentencing law and practice.

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Three Decades of Public Attitudes Research on Crime and Punishment in Canada

Cited by 6 publications

References 23 publications

Moral concerns, criminal punishment, and whether offenders in general or individual offenders are being considered.

Moral concerns, criminal punishment, and whether offenders in general or individual offenders are being considered.

Neoliberalism, Authoritarian-Populism, and the “Photo-Op Democracy” of the Publicity State: Changes to Legislative and Parliamentary Norms by the Harper Government

Juror and community views of the guilty plea sentencing discount: Findings from a national Australian study

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