Criminological thought has relied extensively and at times exclusively on traditional criminological sources (e.g. public opinion polls and simulation studies) for information related to the administration and direction of the criminal justice system. Only recently has attention been given to the possible advantages of actively soliciting the prisoner's perspective as a means of enhancing the criminal justice decision making process. One traditional response for the exclusion of the prisoner's perspective has been the view that prisoners possess distorted and irrational beliefs concerning the criminal justice system as compared to nonprisoners. The social-psychological literature of equity theory, however, posits that most people care deeply about justice for themselves and others and that justice and deserving are paramount in their lives. A further contention is made that even deviants internalize standards of fairness to some extent. If the concepts of justice and deserving are pervasive in society as equity theorists suggest, then it might be possible to view prisoners as not necessarily possessing distorted and irrational views toward the criminal justice system as compared to nonprisoners. / The data do not support the relationship of agreement between prisoners and nonprisoners with regard to appropriate penal sanctions for specific criminal offenses. These results tend to adhere to the generally held belief that prisoners possess attitudes toward the law which are distinctly different from views expressed by nonprisoners. The data, while indicating the lack of agreement between the two groups suggest that in the case of one of the most serious crimes, incest, prisoners' views mirror those of nonprisoners and that a level of agreement exists among prisoners themselves with regard to appropriate levels of penal sanctions for specific criminal acts. / As a secondary aspect of ths study, the concept of legal punishment as a social control mechanism is questioned in terms of the personal ability to assess the appropriate level of preventive or deterrent pain. The hypothesized relationship focuses on punishment as being a function of the individual's identification (empathetic apperception) of himself as a potential recipient of the particular sanction. Past research in the area of attributions has concentrated principally on attributions made by individuals as observers, whereas, in this study, the observers (prisoners) are examining a person similar to themselves. The data indicate that the concept of desirable punishment is unrelated to the individual's identification of himself as a potential recipient of the particular sanction. The data may be interpreted to indicate that individuals appear able to provide an assessment of appropriate levels of penal sanctions regardless of personal biases or possible repercussions. It might be further suggested that if empathetic apperception is not a factor in the selection of penal sanctions, then more credence can be attributed to attitude studies and opinion polls indicating a particular punitive trend. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0812. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74078 |
| Contributors | JULIANI, TONY JOSEPH., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 127 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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