Can You Make a Horse Drink? The Effects of a Corrections Course on Attitudes Toward Criminal Punishment

Abstract

Some experts argue that attitudes toward criminal punishment are difficult to change, whereas others claim that the public, if given the facts, would be less punitive. This study used a pretest-posttest survey design to examine the effects of a university corrections course on attitudes toward the punishment of offenders, and compared subject responses to those of a comparison group enrolled in another criminology course. Students answered knowledge questions and specified punishment choices for crime scenarios. The findings indicate the course as a whole had a significant effect on punishment choices, but specific knowledge change was not the crucial factor in decreasing punitiveness.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Blumstein, Alfred and Jacqueline Cohen . 1980. “Sentencing of Convicted Offenders: An Analysis of the Public's View.” Law & Society Review 14:223-261.

Bohm, Robert M. , Louise J. Clark , and Adrian F. Aveni . 1990. “The Influence of Knowledge on Reasons for Death Penalty Opinions: An Experimental Test.” Justice Quarterly 7:175-188.

Clear, Todd R. and George F. Cole . 1994. American Corrections. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Cullen, Francis T. , Gregory A. Clark , John B. Cullen , and Richard A. Mathers . 1985a. “Attribution, Salience, and Attitudes Toward Criminal Sanctioning.” Criminal Justice and Behavior 12:305-331.

Cullen, Francis T. , Gregory A. Clark , and John F. Wozniak . 1985b. “Explaining the Get Tough Movement: Can the Public Be Blamed?” Federal Probation 49:16-24.

Doble, John , Stephen Immerwahr , and Amy Richardson . 1991. Punishing Criminals: The People of Delaware Consider the Options. New York: Public Agenda Foundation.

Doble, John and Josh Klein . 1989. Punishing Criminals: The Public's View—An Alabama Survey. New York: Public Agenda Foundation.

Doob, Anthony N. and Julian Roberts . 1988. “Public Punitiveness and Public Knowledge of the Facts: Some Canadian Surveys.” Pp. 111-133 in Public Attitudes to Sentencing: Surveys From Five Countries, edited by N. Walker and M. Hough . Aldershot, UK: Gower.

Drummond, Tammerlin . 1993. “Crime Tops Economy as No. 1 Concern in O.C.” Los Angeles Times (Orange County edition), November 30: A1, A24.

10.

Durham, Alexis M. 1989. “Judgments of Appropriate Punishment: The Effects of Question Type.” Journal of Criminal Justice 17:75-85.

11.

Durham, Alexis M. 1993. “Public Opinion Regarding Sentences for Crime: Does It Exist?” Journal of Criminal Justice 21:1-11.

12.

Durham, Alexis M. 1994. Crisis and Reform: Current Issues in American Punishment. Boston: Little, Brown.

13.

Gottfredson, Stephen D. and Ralph B. Taylor . 1984. “Public Policy and Prison Populations: Measuring Opinions About Reform.” Judicature 68:190-201.

14.

Heath, Linda . 1984. “Impact of Newspaper Crime Reports on Fear of Crime: Multimethodological Investigation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 47:263-276.

15.

Irwin, John and James Austin . 1994. It's About Time: America's Imprisonment Binge. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

16.

Jacobs, Gloria . 1993. Punishing Criminals: Pennsylvanians Consider the Options. New York: Public Agenda Foundation.

17.

Langworthy, Robert H. and John T. Whitehead . 1986. “Liberalism and Fear as Explanations of Punitiveness.” Criminology 24:575-591.

18.

Lord, Charles G. , Lee Ross , and Mark R. Lepper . 1979. “Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37:2098-2109.

19.

Maguire, Kathleen and Ann L. Pastore , eds. 1994. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics: 1993. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.

20.

Morris, Norval and Michael Tonry . 1990. Between Prison and Probation: Intermediate Punishments in a Rational Sentencing System. New York: Oxford University Press.

21.

Myers, Martha A. 1989. “Symbolic Policy and the Sentencing of Drug Offenders.” Law & Society Review 23:295-315.

22.

Petersilia, Joan . 1993. “California's Prison Policy: Causes, Costs, and Consequences.” The Prison Journal 72:8-36.

23.

Petersilia, Joan . 1995. “Diverting Non-violent Prisoners to Intermediate Sanctions: The Impact on Prison Admissions and Corrections Costs.” Paper prepared for the California Policy Seminar, Berkeley, CA, January.

24.

Petersilia, Joan and Elizabeth Piper Deschenes . 1994. “Perceptions of Punishment: Inmates and Staff Rank the Severity of Prison Versus Intermediate Sanctions.” The Prison Journal 74:306-328.

25.

Pontell, Henry N. 1984. A Capacity to Punish: The Ecology of Crime and Punishment. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

26.

Riley, Pamela Johnson and Vicki McNickle Rose . 1980. “Public vs. Elite Opinion on Correctional Reform: Implications for Social Policy.” Journal of Criminal Justice 8:345-356.

27.

Roberts, Julian V. 1992. “Public Opinion, Crime, and Criminal Justice.” Pp. 99-180 in Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, edited by M. Tonry . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

28.

Roberts, Julian V. and Anthony N. Doob . 1990. “News Media Influences on Public Views of Sentencing.” Law and Human Behavior 14:451-468.

29.

Samuel, William and Elizabeth Moulds . 1986. “The Effect of Crime Severity on Perceptions of Fair Punishment: A California Case Study.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 77:931-948.

30.

Skovron, Sandra Evans , Joseph E. Scott , and Francis T. Cullen . 1988. “Prison Crowding: Public Attitudes Toward Strategies of Population Control.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 25:150-169.

31.

Thomson, Douglas R. and Anthony J. Ragona . 1987. “Popular Moderation Versus Governmental Authoritarianism: An Interactionist View of Public Sentiments Toward Criminal Sanctions.” Crime and Delinquency 33:337-357.

32.

Tyler, Tom R. and Renee Weber . 1982. “Support for the Death Penalty: Instrumental Response to Crime, or Symbolic Attitude?” Law & Society Review 17:21-45.

33.

Vidmar, Neil and Dale T. Miller . 1980. “Social-Psychological Processes Underlying Attitudes Toward Legal Punishment.” Law & Society Review 14:565-602.

34.

Warr, Mark , Jack P. Gibbs , and Maynard L. Erickson . 1982. “Contending Theories of Criminal Law: Statutory Penalties Versus Public Preferences.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 19:25-46.

35.

Zimmermann, Sherwood , David J. Van Alstyne , and Christopher S. Dunn . 1988. “The National Punishment Survey and Public Policy Consequences.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 25:120-149.