description
Different responses to crime and wrongdoing exist. Most well known and most researched are deterrence, retribution and restorative justice. Although restorative justice is still on its rise, different scholars have already examined the public opinion towards this type of justice, resulting in mostly positive conclusions. However, often this has been examined with self-report questionnaires. When people are confronted with a criminal case and asked for their initial response, this is mostly retributive in nature. It seems that the primary response to wrongdoing is punishing, to make sure people get what they deserve, but people do have different justice goals. Gromet and Darley (2006) found that when crime severity increases, people assign a mixed method procedure (retributive and restorative). Interestingly, the pure court process was chosen least, although multiple scholars argue that people’s first reaction is retributive. This is contradicting each other. Two things might explain the findings from Gromet and Darley (2006). First of all, they have indicated that the offender admitted guilt. This admission of guilt might have impacted people’s opinion about this offender. Admitting guilt might be related to taking responsibility for actions and therefore might make an offender more fitting to a restorative procedure like mediation. In addition, in the mixed option (restorative justice and court), people were informed that after mediation, offenders might still be sanctioned with a prison sentence. People therefore might assume that mediation might not impact further sanctioning. However, looking at cases in the Netherlands, it most often works in offenders benefit to participate in mediation. After mediation there is an increased chance that they receive a different, lower or no sanction at all. It could be that when people are informed about the impact of this mixed process, that their reaction might change. With this project we are examining when people value restorative justice over retributive justice, to gain more insight into the public perception of punishment.
Research questions
Exact research questions will be determined based on student interests after discussion. Example research questions include:
1. Is the public perception of restorative justice different when mediation is part of the justice versus when it is not?
2. Is the attitude of the offender important for the public to refer a criminal case to mediation?
Type of research
Depends on the specific research questions. Most probably an experimental research design will be used.
Key words
Restorative justice, victim-offender mediation, public perception, justice goals
Literature
Gromet, D. M., & Darley, J. M. (2006). Restoration and retribution: How including retributive components affects the acceptability of restorative justice procedures. Social justice research, 19, 395-432.
Information
This project is open to 2 students.
Are you interested in this topic for your thesis? Please contact the theme coordinator Lynn Weiher: l.weiher@utwente.nl