Abstract

Public opinion is doubly important for reintegration, as it shapes both the policy and the stigma environments that people with criminal records must face. Nowhere are the policy and stigma environments bleaker than for record holders convicted of sex crimes. Drawing on the theory of compassion collapse (or psychic numbing) and using experimental data from a national survey, we examine the effects of informing members of the public about the hardships faced by record holders convicted of sex crimes, and we compare those effects (or the lack thereof) to the effects of victim discourse. We also randomize the information format: aggregate/statistical versus personal narratives. We find that narratives about crime victims’ suffering matter to the public—increasing aversive emotions, support for collateral consequences, and stigmatization—but narratives about record holders’ suffering do not. We conclude by discussing alternative communication strategies that public criminologists may use to garner public support for progressive criminal justice reforms.

摘要

公众舆论对于重返社会具有双重重要性，因为它塑造了有犯罪记录的人必须面对的政策和耻辱环境。对于因性犯罪而被定罪的记录持有者，政策和耻辱环境没有比这更糟糕的了。借鉴同情心崩溃（或精神麻木）理论并使用来自全国调查的实验数据，我们研究了向公众通报被判性犯罪的记录持有者所面临的困难的影响，我们比较了这些影响（或缺乏）对受害者话语的影响。我们还将信息格式随机化：汇总/统计与个人叙述。我们发现，关于犯罪受害人痛苦的叙述对公众很重要——增加厌恶情绪，支持附带后果，和污名化——但关于记录保持者痛苦的叙述却没有。最后，我们讨论了公共犯罪学家可能用来获得公众对渐进式刑事司法改革的支持的替代沟通策略。