Justifications for punishment are generally grounded in retribution or consequentialism. Retribution is rooted in and legitimized by common sense notions of free will, claiming that offenders freely and rationally choose to commit a criminal act, and are therefore deserving of punishment. Consequentialism does not necessitate a reliance on a belief in free will, and views punishment as means to a valuable end. In recent years, neuroscientific research has challenged the notion of free will, providing one pathway for a public shift away from retribution and towards consequentialism. To date, no studies have examined whether educating participants about biopsychosocial effects of trauma that are often outside of conscious awareness may contribute to free will doubt. This study used a 2 (biopsychosocial information, neutral information) Ã— 2 (juvenile offender, adult offender) between subjects design and measured beliefs in free will, judgments of culpability, and justifications for punishment. Results showed a main effect of trauma informed psychoeducation on free will beliefs, such that individuals who watched a trauma video had lower free will beliefs compared to individuals who watched a control video. Direct effects of trauma informed psychoeducation on sentence severity and on justifications for punishment were nonsignificant. However, mediation analyses revealed that free will beliefs had an indirect effect on the relations between trauma informed psychoeducation and perceived culpability and that perceived culpability had an indirect effect on the relations between trauma informed psychoeducation and retribution, consequentialism, and punishment severity.

中文翻译：

---

战斗、逃跑和自由意志：创伤知情心理教育对青少年和成年罪犯的感知罪责和惩罚的影响

惩罚的理由通常基于报复或结果论。报复植根于自由意志的常识概念并由其合法化，声称犯罪者自由而理性地选择犯罪行为，因此应受到惩罚。结果主义不需要依赖对自由意志的信仰，而是将惩罚视为实现有价值的目的的手段。近年来，神经科学研究挑战了自由意志的概念，为公众从报复转向结果主义提供了一种途径。迄今为止，还没有研究检查对参与者进行关于创伤的生物心理社会影响的教育是否会导致自由意志怀疑。本研究使用 2（生物心理社会信息，中性信息）× 2（少年犯，成年犯）之间的主题设计和衡量的自由意志信念，有罪判决和惩罚的理由。结果显示创伤知情心理教育对自由意志信念的主要影响，例如与观看控制视频的个体相比，观看创伤视频的个体具有较低的自由意志信念。创伤知情心理教育对判刑严重性和惩罚理由的直接影响并不显着。然而，中介分析表明，自由意志信念对创伤知情心理教育与感知过错之间的关系有间接影响，而感知过错对创伤知情心理教育与报复、结果主义、