RT Article
T1 Perceived Dangerousness Mediates Punitive Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders: Results From a Vignette Experiment
JF Crime & delinquency
VO 71
IS 5
SP 1632
OP 1662
A1 Kruis, Nathan E.
A2 Ménard, Kim S.
A2 Choi, Jaeyong
A2 Rowland, Nicholas J.
A2 Frye, Tyler
A2 Kosaka, Rachel
A2 Williams, Alicia 1970-
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1923710397
AB The current study used an experimental vignette (n = 1,093) to examine the effects of perpetrator sex and age, and victim sex and age, on simulated juror sentencing recommendations for individuals convicted of sexual offenses (ICSO). Path analyses were used to see if differences in punitive attitudes could be explained by perceptions of dangerousness participants attached to experimentally manipulated variables, as hypothesized by attribution theorists. Results show that participants consistently recommended longer sentences, higher fines, and indicated greater support for post-release sanctions for male offenders, older perpetrators, and for offenders who victimized younger adolescents. Path analysis demonstrated that perceptions of dangerousness partially mediated the relationship between experimentally manipulated predictor variables and recommended sentence length, providing partial support for attribution theory.
K1 experimental vignette design
K1 underage victims
K1 SEX offenders
K1 Sentencing
K1 Gender Bias
DO 10.1177/00111287231170106