Public Reactions of Legal Punishment: Examine Some of the Propositions in a Social Psychological Framework

The answer may not be easy nor simple. The current study attempts to investigate the socialpsychological dynamics of punishment reactions to criminal offenders, based on a theoretical framework by Neil Vidmar and Dale T. Miller. Large quantity of legal studies on punishment has been focused on analyzing the rationale behind it.

However, few have been devoted to considering criminal sanctions as a social and psychological phenomenon. More recent studies have made efforts to understand the socialpsychological dynamics of criminal deterrence which is only one of the many functions of legal punishment. The focal objectives of this study are: First, an attempt to examine the motives underlying and the functions served by punishment reactions.

Second, there are very few, if any, studies on punishment reactio which based on socialpsychological framework in Taiwan. The present investigation will examine the two basic types of punishment motives -- behavior control and retribution, using factor analysis. The focus of these motives are the offender and a broader social audience.

Third, an attempt to identify whether or not people from various categories have different degree of reactions toward harsher punishment or death penalty, and how is one\'s punishment reaction different from anothers\'. Comparison among gender, age, educational attainment, income, and occupation will be made. The findings of the present study will have considerable policy relevance as we try to reduce crime rate and tackle the dilemma between civil rights of law-abiding people and criminal offenders.

But the focal objective here is to improve our understanding of how people\'s attitudes toward legal punishment are produced and what influences them, rather than advocating any intervention strategy.