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British Journal of Criminology Advance Access published online on December 10, 2007
British Journal of Criminology, doi:10.1093/bjc/azm069
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The British Journal of Criminology 0:azm069 (2007)
© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

KEEPING A SAFE DISTANCE

Individualism and the Less Punitive Public

Anna King*

* Anna King, PhD, Keele University, Centre for Criminological Research, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, United Kingdom; and Rutgers University, Center for Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice Research, 176 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA; aking{at}ifh.rutgers.edu.


  Abstract

This article will address individual differences in punitiveness or ‘get tough’ attitudes towards lawbreakers, but will do so by looking in depth at the nature of worldviews that have been identified as decidedly forgiving. The aim is to generate new hypotheses through a grounded narrative analysis regarding a dimension of public sensibilities towards crime—leniency—about which we know very little. I conclude that social identity is an important aspect of merciful worldviews, and that a precondition of a forgiving orientation may be a focus on individual agency. This analysis is supported by quantitative tests of new hypotheses to emerge. This article contributes to the more complex picture of differentiated public opinion to crime and criminal justice that has emerged recently in the literature.


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