Is overpunishment fairer than underpunishment? Perceptions of deviations from equity

Abstract

Three studies are presented which test hypotheses derived from Equity Theory, Prospect Theory and the principle of Diminishing Marginal Value with regard to preferences for overpunishment and underpunishment in the assignment of penalties to offences of varying severity. The first two studies showed that, with different subject samples, offences, and kinds of punishments, subjects indicated a marked preference for over-punishment rather than underpunishment, when both over punishment and under-punishment deviated from ideal, or equitable, punishment to the same degree. However, the effect was only apparent for serious offences. A third study showed that the overpunishment preference for a serious offence existed even when the overpunishment deviated 30% more from ideal punishment than underpunishment, but again no preference was shown' for the less serious offence. As the results cannot be readily explained in terms of any of the three explanatory principles, a possible explanation in terms of concept of negative reciprocity is advanced.     

山东省会城市群经济圈产业结构优化研究

山东省会城市群经济圈的发展离不开区域内产业结构的协调优化。本文在对山东省会城市群经济圈的产业发展状况进行简要分析的基础上,提出了山东省会城市群经济圈产业结构存在的问题,主要包括产业结构趋同、产业集群竞争力不强、济南市产业集聚和辐射能力不够强以及经济圈内各市产业有效整合难度比较大四个方面。针对这些问题,本文还给出了优化省会城市群经济圈产业结构的对策建议。     

Steven Chaffee and the Future of Political Communication Research

This article discusses four basic characteristics of Steven Chaffee's research: going beyond the "common research wisdom," careful explication of concepts, avoiding unsubstantiated charges against the media, and investigation of the social aspects of communication. The evolution of political socialization research is used as an example of how these characteristics have strengthened Chaffee's contribution to that area and to the larger field of political communication. It is argued that the future of this field would benefit from emulation of these characteristics. Continuing problems of political communication research are noted, and various emerging problems are discussed.     

PUNITIVE SENTIMENT

Scholarship has long noted the importance of understanding the changes that occur over time in aggregate public support for punitive criminal justice policies. Yet, the lack of a reliable and valid measure of this concept limits our understanding of this aspect of the criminal justice system. This research develops a measure of public support for punitive policies from 1951 to 2006 using 242 administrations of 24 unique survey indicators. It argues that punitive sentiment is politically constructed via frames focusing on the permissiveness of the criminal justice system. Punitive sentiment is estimated with an error‐correction model showing both the short‐ and long‐term relationships between punitive sentiment and presidential framing of crime, public dissatisfaction with social welfare policies, and perceptions of racial integration. The results highlight the complex dynamics responsible for the change over time in punitive sentiment as well as the possibilities of obtaining public support for alternative solutions to crime.     

PENALITY AND THE PENAL STATE

The sociology of punishment has developed a rich understanding of the social and historical forces that have transformed American penality during the last 40 years. But whereas these social forces are not unique to the United States, their penal impact there has been disproportionately large, relative to comparable nations. To address this issue, I suggest that future research should attend more closely to the structure and operation of the penal state. I begin by distinguishing penality (the penal field) from the penal state (the governing institutions that direct and control the penal field). I then present a preliminary conceptualization of “the penal state” and discuss the relationship between the penal state and the American state more generally.     

Ethnic Origins and the Disposition of Delinquents in Israel

Theoretical considerations lead to the hypothesis that the dispositions of juvenile cases affecting Oriental Jews will be harsher than those affecting European Jews in Israel. Further, that Arab juveniles will be dealt with more harshly than will either European or Oriental Jews. Analysis of official delinquency data reveals that this is the tendency. However, the authoritarian structure of the Arab community rather than prejudice explains the difference in handling Jewish or Arabic cases.     

The discipline of difference: Ethnolinguistic heterogeneity and corporal punishment

The minority threat hypothesis contends that growth in the size of a given minority population along with the ensuing competition for social and political resources will threaten existing social power arrangements. Regarding punishment specifically, the hypothesis states that dominant groups will support coercive measures to keep minority populations sufficiently oppressed. Using the minority threat hypothesis as our theoretical foundation, we posit that the more heterogeneous a population, the more social control will be necessary to maintain societal equilibrium for those in power. In effect a more personal, physical, and visceral response to criminal behavior will be deemed necessary in countries with high levels of fractionalization. This more focused form of social discipline will manifest as corporal punishment. Comparing modalities of punishment against varying population characteristics, we find that countries with higher levels of ethnic, linguistic, and religious fractionalization are more likely to employ corporal punishment against criminal offenders.     

Sentence disparity in the federal courts and the adoption of sentencing guidelines

Pressure in the 1970's to reform the sentencing process can be attributed to a change in perceived public sentiment regarding the utility of treatment and to the belief that sentencing disparity was a severe problem in the sentencing process. Primary reform occurred in the federal judicial system with the development and implementation of rigorous sentencing guidelines. An evaluation of sentencing patterns for one federal judicial district indicates that sentencing disparity was not severe. Most federal offenders are relatively mild and consistently receive relatively mild sentences.     

Environmental crime prosecutions in Ireland, 2004–2014

Despite increased interest in environmental crime and green criminology, few studies address the use of criminal penalties in response to environmental crimes. A handful of published examples employ data from the United States or the Flanders court system, and little is known about how other nations punish environmental violations. Addressing this issue, the current study examined the use of criminal environmental penalties in Ireland from 2004 to 2014. Few criminal environmental cases (N = 147) and few environmental offenders (N = 154) were represented in these data over time. Consistent with the expectations of green/environmental crime researchers, mean penalties for environmental violations, which in Ireland only include fines and investigative cost recovery penalties, were rather small. Unlike in the US or Flanders, the majority of offenders were corporate offenders as opposed to individuals. Contextual factors related to Ireland’s economy, history and use of criminal sanctions should be used to interpret these factors, and prevent generalising from these data.     

Business as usual

The tech stock crash of 2000 discredited the new economy as business model. This article introduces a journal special issue which takes up the challenge of putting new economy developments into this post-crash perspective and establishing long-run continuities, without discounting the importance of what happened. This article opens the debate by highlighting two themes in the articles that are collected together in the special issue: first, it discusses what was and is the new economy in the USA; second, it examines the relevance and resonance of the new economy in Europe.