Abstract

This study explores whether Americans’ punitiveness and perceptions of redeemability are shaped more by the type of crime committed or by judgements about an offender’s moral character. Guided by theories of neoliberalism, we focus on laziness as an indicator of flawed character that is independent of criminality. A sentencing vignette experiment administered to a national sample of the U.S. population tested the effects of crime type and a defendant’s employment status, work ethic, and race on respondents’ preferred punishment and perceptions of the defendant’s redeemability. Both crime type and work ethic significantly affect perceived (ir)redeemability and sentencing preferences, but the effects are not identical. Work ethic exerts the largest effect on perceived (ir)redeemability, whereas crime type most strongly influences sentencing preferences. We discuss the implications of our findings for act- vs. person-centered theories of punishment, as well as the role of laziness stigma in social responses to lawbreakers.

摘要

这项研究探讨了美国人的惩罚性和对赎回能力的看法是否更多地受到所犯罪行的类型或对罪犯道德品质的判断的影响。在新自由主义理论的指导下，我们将懒惰作为独立于犯罪的有缺陷性格的指标。对美国人口的全国样本进行的量刑小插曲实验测试了犯罪类型和被告​​的就业状况、职业道德和种族对受访者偏好的惩罚和对被告可赎回能力的看法的影响。犯罪类型和职业道德都会显着影响感知（不可）赎回和量刑偏好，但效果并不相同。职业道德对感知（不）可赎回性的影响最大，而犯罪类型对量刑偏好的影响最大。我们讨论了我们的发现对行为与以人为中心的惩罚理论的影响，以及懒惰耻辱在对违法者的社会反应中的作用。