Public opinion and criminal justice

269 Pages·2009·5.827 MB·English

by  Wood, Jane L., Gannon, Theresa A

Public Opinion and
Criminal Justice
i " EDITED BY
Ja n e W o o d and
WILLAN
Theresa G an n o n
PUBLISHING
Public O pinion and Crim inal Justice
Public Opinion and Criminal
Justice
Edited by
Jane L.Wood and Theresa A. Gannon
WILLAN
PUBLISHING
Published by
Willan Publishing
Culmcott House
Mill Street, Uffculme
Cullompton, Devon
EX15 3AT, UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by
Willan Publishing
c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax:[phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.isbs.com
© The editors and contributors 2009
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence
permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron
House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
First published 2009
ISBN 978-1-84392-400-5 paperback
978-1-84392-401-2 hardback
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
FSC
Mixed Sources
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Project managed by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock, Devon
Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
Printed and bound by T.J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
List of abbreviations vii
Notes on contributors ix
Preface xv
Part 1 Public Opinion: Its Formation and Function
1 The psychology of attitudes and persuasion 3
Gerd Bohner and Michaela Weinke
2 Why public opinion of the criminal justice system
is important 33
Jane Wood
3 What shapes public opinion of the criminal justice
system? 49
jacqueline M. Gray
4 The myth of public support for capital punishment 73
Francis T. Cullen, James D. Unnever, Kristie R. Blevins,
Jennifer A. Pealer, Shannon A. Santana, Bonnie S. Fisher
and Brandon K. Applegate
5 Achieving accurate assessment of attitudes toward the
criminal justice system: methodological issues 96
G. Tendayi Viki and Gerd Bohner
Public Opinion and Criminal Justice
Part 2 Public Opinion: Victims and Offenders
6 The typical rape: factors affecting victims' decision
to report 123
Margaret Wilson and Angela Scholes
7 Attitudes towards victims of crime: a double-edged
sword? 145
Elizabeth Gilchrist
8 Public attitudes towards offending, offenders and
reintegration 166
Natalie Reynolds, Leant A. Craig and Douglas P. Boer
9 Attitudes towards sexual offenders and their
rehabilitation: a special case? 187
Sarah Brown
10 Stigma and offenders with mental illness 214
Patrick W. Corrigan and Jessica L. Walton
Index 239
vi
List of abbreviations
ACPO Association of Chief Police Officers
AMHCA American Mental Health Counselors Association
APS Attitudes to Punishment Scale
ATP attitudes towards prisoners
ATS attitudes towards sex offenders
BCS British Crime Survey
BSPQ Belson Social Philosophy Questionnaire
C-CABS Consensus-Conflict Attitudes and Beliefs Scale
CJS criminal justice system
CPS Crown Prosecution Service
DP deliberative poll
ECA Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study
ELM elaboration likelihood model
HMIC Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary
HSM heuristic-systematic model
IAAOC International Association of Addictions and Offender
Counselors
IAT implicit association test
JBS Juror Bias Scale
NC need for cognition
NCS National Comorbidity Study
NFA no further action
NIMBY 'not in my back yard'
NOTA National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers
OCD obsessive compulsive disorder
PIO public information officer
Public Opinion and Criminal Justice
RMA rape myth acceptance
SEU Social Exclusion Unit
TAC Treatment Advocacy Center
VCS Victim Concern Scale
VPS Victim Personal Statement
Notes on contributors
Brandon K. Applegate is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the
University of Central Florida. His primary areas of research interest
include punishment and rehabilitation policy, juvenile justice, jail
operations and populations, offenders' perceptions of their sentences
and public views of correctional policies. He has served as Secretary
of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and as President of the
Southern Criminal Justice Association.
Kristie R. Blevins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Criminal Justice at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Her research interests include corrections, the occupational reactions
of criminal justice employees and public opinion about criminal
justice issues. Her work can be found in the Journal of Offender
Rehabilitation, Criminal Justice Polici/ Review, American Journal of
Criminal Justice, Deviant Behavior and International Journal of Police
Science and Management. She has also co-authored several book
chapters and co-edited Taking Stock: The Status of Criminological Theory
and Transformative Justice: Critical and Peacemaking Themes Influenced by
Richard Quinney.
Douglas P. Boer has been Director of Clinical Psychology at the
University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand since January 2006.
He is an Associate Editor of the e-journal Sex Offender Treatment and
the New Zealand editor of the journal Sexual Abuse in Australia and
Nezv Zealand: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Prior to 2006, Doug was
employed by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) for 15 years
Public Opinion and Criminal Justice
in a variety of contexts including sex offender therapist, institutional
psychologist, sex offender programme director, and senior and
regional psychologist. While working for the CSC, he also published
a number of articles and structured clinical guideline manuals for
use with offenders, most notably the Sexual Violence Risk - 20 with a
number of co-authors from Simon Fraser University. Doug continues
to publish and present in the area of risk assessment and management
of offenders, although his favourite academic activity is teaching and
presenting workshops. Doug has also held a number of Adjunct
Professorships in Canada (Simon Fraser University, University of
British Columbia) and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Disability
Studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
University.
Gerd Bohner is Professor of Social Psychology at Bielefeld University,
Department of Psychology, Bielefeld, Germany. He has research
interests in social cognition, attitudes and persuasion, including
applications to intergroup relations, sexual violence and consumer
psychology. He is chief editor of the journal Social Psychology and
serves as consulting editor for several international journals. Recent
publications include G. Bohner, H.-P. Erb and F. Siebler (2008)
'Information processing approaches to persuasion: integrating
assumptions from the dual- and single-processing perspectives', in
W. D. Crano and R. Prislin (eds), Attitudes and Attitude Change. New
York: Psychology Press.
Sarah Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Coventry
University, where she has been a member of the Psychology
Department since 1999. She is a Chartered Forensic Psychologist
and the University's Forensic Psychology and Law Applied Research
Group Leader. In addition, Sarah is the Course Director for the MSc
Forensic Psychology, the Editor of the journal of Sexual Aggression
and the Division of Forensic Psychology representative in the British
Psychology Society's Research Board and Press Committee. Sarah's
research interests cover a range of forensic psychology issues including
sexual grooming, risk assessment, jury decision-making and attitudes
towards sex offenders and their punishment and treatment. Sarah is
the author of the book Sex Offender Treatment Programmes published
by Willan in 2005.
Patrick W. Corrigan has been Professor and Associate Dean for
Research, Institute of Psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology