En fixant des normes et des interdits, les valeurs morales participent du bon fonctionnement d'un groupe ou d'une société (Haidt & Kesebir, 2010 ; Janoff-Bulman, Sheikh, & Hepp, 2009). Lorsqu'une norme sociale ou morale est transgressée, l'individu est parfois pris du désir de sanctionner l'auteur de la transgression, même s'il n'en a pas lui-même souffert les conséquences (Chekroun & Brauer, 2008 ; Fehr & Fischbacher, 2004). Ce type de sanction aurait pour fonction de maintenir l'ordre social et la coopération entre les individus (Fehr & Gächter, 2002 ; Ginits, Henrich, Bowles, Boyd, & Fehr, 2008 ; Jensen, 2010). Afin de mieux comprendre ce phénomène, nous avons étudié le rôle joué par les valeurs morales dans le déclenchement de ces conduites punitives « désintéressées ». De nombreuses études ont mis en évidence la force motivationnelle dont sont pourvues les valeurs, poussant l'individu à agir en adéquation avec elles (e.g., Hertel & Kerr, 2001 ; Maio, Pakizeh, Cheung, & Rees, 2009). Partant de cet état de fait, nous avons postulé l'existence d'une deuxième composante motivationnelle propre aux valeurs morales, conduisant l'individu à les faire respecter en sanctionnant les personnes qui ne les respectent pas. Nous avons testé dans un premier temps cette hypothèse à travers l'impact du système moral individuel sur le jugement punitif dans le cadre de situations moralement ambivalentes dans lesquelles le protagoniste respectait une valeur morale (e.g., l'équité) aux dépens d'une autre (e.g., la loyauté). Les résultats suggèrent que plus les individus adhèrent à une valeur, plus ils souhaitent voir sanctionnées les personnes transgressant cette valeur. Dans un second temps, nous avons étudié à l'aide de différentes procédures d'amorçage l'influence momentanée que peuvent avoir les valeurs morales sur les tendances punitives lorsque le contexte les rend saillantes. Les effets de l'amorçage spécifique d'une valeur, la loyauté, ont été testés dans le cadre de situations fictives moralement ambivalentes ainsi que dans des conditions écologiques. Les résultats montrent que l'amorçage spécifique de la loyauté entraine une augmentation de la sévérité du jugement punitif ainsi qu'une baisse des tendances prosociales à l'égard d'une personne ayant agi de façon déloyale. L'apparition de ces effets semble néanmoins dépendre du niveau d'implication des individus vis-à-vis de la situation. Ce travail de recherche nous a aussi permis de constater que lorsqu'une valeur est accessible (de façon chronique ou temporaire), l'individu a davantage tendance à percevoir les événements à travers celle-ci. Dans l'ensemble, les résultats obtenus à travers cette série d'études mettent en évidence l'influence exercée par les valeurs morales, liée à leur niveau d'accessibilité et de désirabilité, entrainant les individus à les faire respecter en sanctionnant leurs transgresseurs. / Moral values take part in the effective functioning of a group or society by setting prescriptive and proscriptive norms (Haidt & Kesebir, 2010, Janoff-Bulman, Sheikh, & Hepp, 2009). When witnessing the violation of a social or moral norm, people sometimes wish to punish the transgressor, even if they do not suffer any negative consequences of the violation (Chekroun & Brauer, 2008 ; Fehr & Fischbacher, 2004). The function of this kind of sanction would be an upholding of the social order and cooperation between group members (Fehr & Gächter, 2002 ; Ginits, Henrich, Bowles, Boyd, & Fehr, 2008 ; Jensen, 2010). In order to better understand this phenomenon, we studied how moral values can trigger such third-party punishment. Numerous studies highlight the motivational nature of moral values, driving people to act in line with these ideals (e.g., Hertel & Kerr, 2001 ; Maio, Pakizeh, Cheung, & Rees, 2009). With this in mind, we suggested the existence of a second motivational component, specific to moral values, driving the individual to enforce them by punishing their transgressors. Firstly, we tested this hypothesis through the impact of the individual moral system on punitiveness in morally ambivalent situations describing a protagonist respecting a value (e.g., fairness) at the expense of another (e.g., loyalty). According to the results, the more participants agreed with a value, the more they wanted to see someone who violated the value being punished. Then, we studied the influence exerted by moral values on punitiveness when they are salient within the situation, using different priming procedures. We tested the priming effects of one specific value, loyalty, using morally ambivalent situations and ecological designs. According to the results, priming loyalty led to an increase of punishment severity and to a decrease of prosocial intentions toward a person who didn't act loyally. However, these effects seem to be moderated by the level of personal involvement vis à vis the situation. This research also revealed that when a value is accessible (chronically or temporarily), one tends to perceive the events through the value. All in all, the results gathered through this series of studies reveal the influence exerted by moral values, linked to their levels of accessibility and desirability, which drive people to enforce them by sanctioning their transgressors.

Prior research demonstrates that multiple dimensions of religiosity significantly predict punitive attitudes and militarism. This study highlights the importance of believing in a masculine God, an aspect of religiosity with a robust and consistent relationship to punitiveness and militarism, but which has previously been unexamined. After accounting for multiple aspects of religiosity highlighted by previous research—such as frequency of religious practice, religious tradition, fundamentalist identity and beliefs, and other dimensions of God image including love, anger, judgment, and engagement—believing that God is a “He” consistently and strongly increases support for harsh social policies targeting intra-societal enemies (criminals), as well as general militarism and campaigns targeting extra-societal enemies (e.g. “terrorists”). These results highlight the importance of theorizing and measuring gendered dimensions of belief in God, as well as the importance of fine-grained considerations of religion in studies of penal populism and militarism.

[pt] A tese analisa as relações entre crime e comportamento político na América Latina. O capítulo 1 realiza uma análise de mediação causal do efeito do medo do crime sobre o apoio à democracia, testando se a satisfação com a democracia media a associação entre medo e apoio. O capítulo 2 se dedica à análise da relação entre o medo do crime e duas dimensões da punitividade – apoio ao endurecimento da legislação penal e apoio à pena de morte. O capítulo 3 avalia o efeito do sofrimento de um crime sobre o apoio dos indivíduos a iniciativas privadas de combate à criminalidade, o chamado vigilantismo. O terceiro capítulo testa também se o efeito da vitimização pelo crime sobre o apoio ao vigilantismo ocorre através da confiança no sistema de justiça. A tese chega a algumas conclusões: 1) que indivíduos com maior medo do crime estão, em geral, menos satisfeitos com o funcionamento da democracia e, por isso, reduzem seu apoio à democracia; 2) que pessoas que sentem mais medo de sofrerem crimes são mais favoráveis ao endurecimento da legislação penal e à pena de morte; 3) que a associação entre medo e punitividade é mais forte entre indivíduos com baixa confiança na justiça do que naqueles com alta; 4) que vítimas de crimes, em média, apoiam mais práticas de vigilantismo; 5) que a associação entre sofrer um crime e o apoio ao vigilantismo é parcialmente explicada pela diminuição da confiança no sistema de justiça causada pela vitimização. Para chegar a essas conclusões, o trabalho utiliza dados do Barômetro das Américas (Lapop) de anos e países variados, além de diversas técnicas estatísticas. Os capítulos 1 e 2 aplicaram modelos com efeitos fixos para analisar múltiplos países da América Latina simultaneamente, com um estudo de mediação no capítulo 1. O capítulo 3 também empregou uma técnica de análise causal, mas utilizando uma nova abordagem, a regressão com resíduos (RWR), com dados observacionais do Brasil. / [en] This dissertation analyzes the associations between crime and political behavior in Latin America. Chapter 1 performs a causal mediation analysis of the effect of fear of crime on support for democracy, testing if satisfaction with democracy mediates the association between fear and support. Chapter 2 examines the relations betwixt fear of crime and two different dimensions of punitiveness – support for harsher punishments for criminals and approval of the death penalty. Chapter 3 investigates the effect of crime victimization on support for vigilantism. It also studies whether trust in the justice system mediates the association between crime victimization and support for vigilantism. The dissertation reaches a few conclusions. First, individuals who are more fearful of crime are less satisfied with democracy and, because of it, decrease their support for the regime. Second, persons who exhibit higher fear of crime are more supportive of harsher sentences and the death penalty. Third, the association between fear and support for harsher sentences is stronger among low trust individuals and weaker among high trust ones. Fourth, crime victims, overall, display more support for vigilantism than non-victims. Fifth, the effect of victimization on support for vigilantism is mediated by trust in the justice system, i.e., being a crime victim lowers confidence, enhancing support for vigilantism. This dissertation used data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (Lapop) for different countries and years to achieve these results. It also applied multiple statistical techniques. Chapters 1 and 2 used fixed-effects models to analyze data from numerous Latin American countries simultaneously, with a causal mediation analysis in chapter 1. Chapter 3 also employed a causal mediation analysis, but using a novel approach, the regression-with-residuals (RWR), with observational data from Brazil.

No description available.

The competing values of national security and civil liberties have been contested as conflicting ideas during times of national emergencies and war, in which the canonical knowledge asserts that the temporary secession of civil liberties is sometimes necessary to protect national security. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack there has been increased pressure on the U.S. government to provide safety and security, which has required Americans to accept certain restrictions on their freedoms, leading to debates about whether liberty or security should be prioritized. The increasing popularization of securitization in post 9/11 discourse justified by a perpetual state of emergency via the War on Terror, has reinforced the racialization of reified "others," specifically Muslims or people who are perceived to be descendent from the Middle East. The conceptualization of Middle Easterners as 'terrorists' and 'threats' to be securitized has been constructed by political elites and media narratives to garner support for security measures leading to the diminished civil liberties of those stereotyped as "terrorists." Using the theoretical approach of racialized "othering" and the minority threat perception, this research seeks to analyze public opinion on counterterrorism policies when the race/ethnicity and ideological motivations of perpetrators in a hypothetical terrorist attack scenario are manipulated. To investigate this premise, an online survey experiment distributed through Amazon MTurk was conducted to gather public opinion data on counterterrorism policies. Regression analyses were conducted from the 314 respondents to evaluate support amongst various social groups for the counterterrorism policies and whether or not this support was affected by the presence of either American-born, White, men motivated by the teachings of far-right extremism or American-born, men of Middle Eastern descent motivated by the teachings of Islamic extremism. Respondents were asked to evaluate two counterterrorism policies, one that required ceding the civil liberties of the public at large, and the other required ceding the civil liberties of suspected terrorists specifically – which is also referred to as the 'punitive' policy throughout the research. Overall, respondents were more likely to support the policy requiring ceding civil liberties in general, than the punitive policy that would take away the civil liberties of suspected terrorist. When factoring in survey type, respondents in general were more likely to support the punitive policy when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey and were also the most likely to support the policy requiring the public to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey. The willingness to cede civil liberties increased for Black and Asian respondents with the presence of the White/Far-right extremism survey, while willingness to cede civil liberties decreased for White respondents taking the same survey. In general, conservatives were more likely to cede their civil liberties than liberals, and liberals were more likely to view counterterrorism policies as ineffective. When accounting for the effects of survey type on ideology, the results show that conservatives were the least likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey, while liberals were the most likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey. / Master of Arts / This thesis explores the role of issue framing, and threat perception on terrorism and its effects on public perception of the liberty vs. security paradigm by way of support for counterterrorism policies. Specifically, this research aims to assess whether support for counterterrorism policies by social group (focusing on race and ideology) varies when the race/ethnicity and ideological motivations of the perpetrators are manipulated in a hypothetical terrorist attack scenario. In order to test this effect, a survey experiment was conducted to gather public opinion data on counterterrorism policies which emulated the liberty/security trade-offs within the Patriot Act. The survey was distributed through the online platform Amazon MTurk which garnered 314 responses. Regression analyses were conducted to evaluate support amongst various social groups for the counterterrorism policies and whether or not this support was affected by the presence of either American-born, White, men motivated by the teachings of far-right extremism or American-born, men of Middle Eastern descent motivated by the teachings of Islamic extremism. Using the theoretical approach of "othering" and the minority threat perception that contributes to desires for increased social controls and levels of punitiveness among the public, this research evaluates respondents' willingness to cede their own civil liberties as well as their support for punitive policies that take away the civil liberties of the perpetrators based on the survey/stimuli respondents received. Overall, respondents were more likely to support the policy requiring ceding civil liberties, than support the punitive policy that would take away the civil liberties of the perpetrators. When factoring in survey type, respondents in general were more likely to support the punitive policy when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey and were also the most likely to support the policy requiring the public to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey. The willingness to cede civil liberties increased for Black and Asian respondents with the presence of the White/Far-right extremism survey, while the willingness to cede civil liberties decreased for White respondents with the presence of the White/Far-right extremism survey. In general, conservatives were more likely to cede their civil liberties than liberals, and liberals were more likely to view counterterrorism policies as ineffective. When accounting for the effects of survey type on ideology, the results show that conservatives were the least likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the White/Far-right extremism survey, while liberals were the most likely to cede their civil liberties when taking the Middle Eastern/Islamic extremism survey.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Family and Studies and Social Work, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 33-38-Xx).

No description available.

Diploma thesis "The Czech prison system and its ability to meet the public interest" deals with the public interest in the selected area from the perspective of key stakeholders, election programmes, policy statements of governments and (changes in) legislation between 2000-2013. For determination of what is the public interest has been used as a tool a scheme of four dimensions of definition of public interest. First, there is the public interest as defined by experts, which is determined on the basis of content analysis of the journal the České vězeňství published by Prison Service of the Czech Republic. Second, the public interest determined by the preferences of citizens, which are collected from content analysis of articles from Newton Media Search and from reproduced findings of public opinion polls. To analyze the third dimension of public interests, which are generated by functional needs of the community, content analysis of election programmes of the parliamentary parties of the period is used as well as policy statements of the government and also the study of changes in legislation. Fourth, the public interests based on individual interests, are investigated through a case study in one of the Czech prisons, which took place in April - May 2013. The analysis showed common attributes of...