RT Article
T1 Mindsets of criminality: predicting punitive and rehabilitative attitudes
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 30
IS 9
SP 1087
OP 1104
A1 Hoyt, Crystal L. 1975-
A2 d'Almeida, Ayele
A2 Forsyth, Rachel B.
A2 Burnette, Jeni L.
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1905537751
AB Should the goal of criminal justice be to make sure offenders get their ‘just deserts’? In the current work, we investigate why some people believe that criminal offenders should be punished. The primary goal is to explore how mindsets about the nature of criminal behavior predict punitive and rehabilitative attitudes. Drawing on the Double-Edged Sword (DES) model of mindsets in stigmatized domains, we predicted that mindsets about the relative changeability (growth mindsets) or stability (fixed mindsets) of criminality will have contradictory indirect effects on these attitudes. Across three preregistered studies (N = 1,089), in addition to finding that growth mindsets overall predicted less punitive attitudes, we found support for the DES model. That is, growth mindsets indirectly predicted less punitive and more rehabilitative attitudes via reduced essentialist thinking but stronger punitive and weaker rehabilitative attitudes via greater blame. Our findings extend the DES model to the domain of criminality, suggest avenues for additional research, and offer applications for fostering growth mindsets that keep the benefits without the costs.
K1 Criminal Justice
K1 Rehabilitation
K1 Punishment
K1 Criminality
K1 Mindsets
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2022.2154352