Remorse and a Previously Punished Offense in Assignment of Punishment and Estimated Likelihood of a Repeated Offense

Abstract

A total of 149 college students read two vignettes, one about an individual who had been arrested for assault and one about a psychologist who had violated confidentiality. In a 2 × 2 design, variables examined were whether the person had previously been punished for a similar offense and whether the person expressed remorse for the recent act. Participants made two judgments about each story, (1) estimates of the likelihood that the protagonists would do the same thing again and (2) assignment of an appropriate punishment. For the criminal act but not for the improper act of the psychologist the expression of remorse significantly affected estimates of likelihood of a repeated offense and the length of assigned sentence. Detection and punishment of a previous offense affected judgments of the probability of a future offense but not assigned sentence for both the criminal offense and the violation of professional standards.