Factors explaining attitudes towards the punishment of juvenile offenders Evidence from factorial design

Abstract

The role played by public opinion in the determination of current criminal justice policy justifi es the increase in studies which aim to evaluate public attitudes towards punishment. However, advances in this area have been limited, due to the use of rudimentary survey instruments. Hence, this work aims to explore the infl uence of certain variables with regard to the offense and the offender and the different sentences selected. In order to meet this objective the survey employs a factorial design, creating a population of 256 vignettes resulting from the combination of four factors: the age of the youth, his criminal record, his degree of involvement, and the nature of the crime committed. They were distributed in groups of eight cases, randomly assigned, and administered to 32 subjects. Binary logistic regression analyses were later applied. The results obtained reveal that the violent nature of acts, the active involvement of the youth, and his criminal record, are important predictors of support for punitive sentences. Age, on the other hand, a fundamental variable of the juvenile justice system, was, very interestingly, not a signifi cant factor. The study exhibits the explanatory potential of this set of factors and discusses their theoretical and methodological implications for future research in this fi eld.