The effects of harm to and sympathy for the victim on punitive attitudes: evidence from a factorial survey.

This paper reports the results of a factorial survey on the effects of harm caused to the victim by a criminal offense and of sympathy for the victim on punitive attitudes. Participants (N = 1345) of nationwide representative survey read a brief description of an assault case in which the amount of harm (low vs. high) caused to the victim by the offense and the characteristics of the victim (unpleasant vs. pleasant) which affect the level of sympathy for the victim were varied (2 × 2 design). The respondents then rated the appropriateness of a sentence imposed on the offender. As hypothesized, persons who read the conditions where the victim suffered a high harm were on average more punitive than persons who read the low harm version. Also the sympathy for the victim mattered: when the victim was a pleasant person the respondents demanded a higher penalty compared to an unpleasant victim. The biggest effect was found when the victim was pleasant and suffered a high amount of harm. These findings show the importance of characteristics of the victim and the amount of harm caused to the victim for public punitive attitudes. The results are linked to the patterns of media coverage on crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]