Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make?
Preferences of 800 randomly selected Australians for retributive and utilitarian sentencing purposes were examined in response to brief crime scenarios where offender age, offence type and offender history were systematically varied. Respondents selected rehabilitation as the most important purpose...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Sage
2012
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19843 |
| _version_ | 1848750144907902976 |
|---|---|
| author | Spiranovic, C. Roberts, Lynne Indermaur, D. Warner, K. Gelb, K. Mackenzie, G. |
| author_facet | Spiranovic, C. Roberts, Lynne Indermaur, D. Warner, K. Gelb, K. Mackenzie, G. |
| author_sort | Spiranovic, C. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Preferences of 800 randomly selected Australians for retributive and utilitarian sentencing purposes were examined in response to brief crime scenarios where offender age, offence type and offender history were systematically varied. Respondents selected rehabilitation as the most important purpose for first-time, young and burglary offenders. Punishment was endorsed as most important for repeat, adult and serious assault offenders. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that offence history was a stronger predictor of public preferences than offender age or offence type; the odds of choosing rehabilitation compared with punishment were significantly increased by a factor of 6.1 for cases involving first-time offenders. It appears that when given specific cases to consider, the public takes an approach akin to that taken by the sentencing courts as they weigh up the importance of the various purposes for the case at hand. Public preferences are thus broadly consistent with current law and sentencing practice. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:32:10Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-19843 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:32:10Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Sage |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-198432017-09-13T13:48:13Z Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? Spiranovic, C. Roberts, Lynne Indermaur, D. Warner, K. Gelb, K. Mackenzie, G. Preferences of 800 randomly selected Australians for retributive and utilitarian sentencing purposes were examined in response to brief crime scenarios where offender age, offence type and offender history were systematically varied. Respondents selected rehabilitation as the most important purpose for first-time, young and burglary offenders. Punishment was endorsed as most important for repeat, adult and serious assault offenders. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that offence history was a stronger predictor of public preferences than offender age or offence type; the odds of choosing rehabilitation compared with punishment were significantly increased by a factor of 6.1 for cases involving first-time offenders. It appears that when given specific cases to consider, the public takes an approach akin to that taken by the sentencing courts as they weigh up the importance of the various purposes for the case at hand. Public preferences are thus broadly consistent with current law and sentencing practice. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19843 10.1177/1748895811431847 Sage restricted |
| spellingShingle | Spiranovic, C. Roberts, Lynne Indermaur, D. Warner, K. Gelb, K. Mackenzie, G. Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? |
| title | Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? |
| title_full | Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? |
| title_fullStr | Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? |
| title_short | Public preferences for sentencing purposes: What difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? |
| title_sort | public preferences for sentencing purposes: what difference does offender age, criminal history and offence type make? |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/19843 |