When the World is Just: How Belief in a Just World Shapes Attitudes Towards Restorative Justice and Punitive Sentencing

People differ in their response to crime. Many are familiar with the criminal justice system in which an offender is brought to trial and punished for the wrongdoing. The crime is solved between the offender and the state, meaning that there is little to no room for the victim or the community in the process. In restorative justice these parties do play a role. In restorative justice the victim, the offender and the community together resolve the harm that has been done. The application of restorative justice programs is growing. However, little research has been done on what the public thinks of these programs, although the public opinion on crime response is very important (Van Gelder et al., 2015). When aiming to prevent crime and foster restorative justice approaches, it is necessary to understand how societal beliefs about the causes of criminal behaviour shape support for several justice systems. 

Recently, we conducted a study examining how Belief in a Just World (BJW) relates to public support for punitive sentencing and restorative justice, and how internal and external attributions of criminal behaviour help explain these attitudes. This study has been submitted for scientific publication and received a revise-and-resubmit decision. One of the key recommendations of the reviewers is to conduct a replication study with improved measurement and a refined research design to strengthen the robustness of the findings. 

In this follow-up project, we will therefore replicate the original study while improving the measurement instruments and study procedure. During this internship you will contribute to setting up and conducting this replication study. As an intern you will, among other things: 

•  help improve and pilot-test the questionnaire, especially measures of internal and external crime attributions; 
• assist in setting up and testing the online survey and ensuring the study procedure matches the theoretical model; 
• support participant recruitment and monitor data collection; 
• clean and prepare the collected data and assist with replication analyses; 
• summarize results and contribute to recommendations for revising the scientific article 

Restorative justice, belief in a just world, punishment, justice  

The section Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety at the University of Twente has a distinctive and unique profile in the areas of risk perception and risk communication, conflict and crisis management and the antecedents of risky, antisocial and criminal behaviour. It currently includes 15 research staff members and 6 PhD students. We work from both a psychology and an engineering perspective and cooperate with other scientific disciplines, based on the “high tech, human touch” profile of the University of Twente.

Usually anytime. This internship is open for 1 student.

Please contact the internship coordinator Miriam Oostinga (m.s.d.oostinga@utwente.nl).  

• Correia, I., Carvalho, H., Otto, K., & Nudelman, G. (2024). Justice perceptions and well being:  Belief in a just world is a personal resource and a coping resource. British Journal of  Psychology, 115(2),  324-344. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12689 
• Hansen, T., & Umbreit, M. (2018). State of knowledge: Four decades of victim‐offender  mediation research and practice: The evidence. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 36(2),  99-113. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21234  
• Lauber, P. (2025). When the World is Just: How Belief in a Just World Shapes Attitudes Towards  Restorative Justice and Punitive Sentencing[Thesis]. University of Twente, Enschede.  https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/106307