When School-Shooting Media Fuels a Retributive Public: an Examination of Psychological Mediators

Despite evidence suggesting proactive responses to youth crime are advantageous, juvenile justice relies heavily on punitive practices. This discrepancy is in part affected by public preferences for retribution, which are skewed by sensationalized media portrayals of youth crime. This experiment (N...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: O’Toole, Megan J. (VerfasserIn)
Beteiligte: Fondacaro, Mark R. 1957- (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2017
In: Youth violence and juvenile justice
Jahr: 2017, Band: 15, Heft: 2, Seiten: 154-171
Online-Zugang: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Schlagwörter:
Dehumanization
Media
Public attitudes
School Shooting
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Despite evidence suggesting proactive responses to youth crime are advantageous, juvenile justice relies heavily on punitive practices. This discrepancy is in part affected by public preferences for retribution, which are skewed by sensationalized media portrayals of youth crime. This experiment (N = 174) explores how youth crime media exposure translates into retributive attitudes by testing the hypothesis that media portrayals of school shootings increase retributive attitudes indirectly through either dehumanization or mortality salience. Statistical analyses suggest that dehumanization mediates the relationship between school-shooting media portrayals and retributive attitudes toward crime-involved youths. To promote support of less retributive juvenile justice policies, advocates may benefit by focusing emphasis on humanizing elements of young offenders.
ISSN:1556-9330
DOI:10.1177/1541204015616664