Belief in Redeemability and Punitive Public Opinion: “Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal” Revisited

By A. L. Burton, F. Cullen, Velmer S. Burton,, Amanda Graham, Leah C. Butler, Angela J. Thielo. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2020

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In 2009, Maruna and King presented results from a British survey showing that the public’s belief in the redeemability of people who committed offenses curbed their level of punitiveness. Based on a 2017 national survey in the United States (n = 1,000), the current study confirms that redeemability is negatively related to punitive attitudes. In addition, the analyses reveal that this belief predicts support for rehabilitation and specific inclusionary policies (i.e., ban-the-box in employment, expungement of criminal records, and voting rights for people with a felony conviction). Findings regarding measures for punishment and rehabilitation were confirmed by a 2019 Mechanical Turk (MTurk) survey. These results suggest that beliefs about capacity for change among people who committed offenses are key to understanding crime-control public policy.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7ad8c5342cc00f5e0c86828e1f93df209af5d9db

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