Perceptions of punishment: a mixed methods approach to understanding differing levels of punitive attitudes
(2020) SOCM04 20201Sociology
Department of Sociology
- Abstract
- The purpose of this paper was to contribute to an increased knowledge of the punitive attitudes of Swedish 18-30 year olds, and more specifically which potential factors could possibly explain why people have the different levels of punitive attitude that they do as, well as how these factors impact people’s level of punitive attitude. The variables that were chosen to be explored further were political ideology as well as social and moral cohesion. A mixed methods approach was utilized in order to collect the data, where the qualitative method consisted of interviews and the quantitative method consisted of an online survey.
Theories from Heider, Maruna and King, as well as Boeckmann and Tyler were used to analyze the data. The study... (More) - The purpose of this paper was to contribute to an increased knowledge of the punitive attitudes of Swedish 18-30 year olds, and more specifically which potential factors could possibly explain why people have the different levels of punitive attitude that they do as, well as how these factors impact people’s level of punitive attitude. The variables that were chosen to be explored further were political ideology as well as social and moral cohesion. A mixed methods approach was utilized in order to collect the data, where the qualitative method consisted of interviews and the quantitative method consisted of an online survey.
Theories from Heider, Maruna and King, as well as Boeckmann and Tyler were used to analyze the data. The study concludes that political ideology and social cohesion seem to have a small correlation with punitive attitudes, whereas moral cohesion does not. However, more research is needed in order to establish whether there are any actual correlations between punitive attitude and polical ideology, and moral and social cohesion. The study also concludes that the correlation between political ideology and punitive attitudes could be a cause of different ideologies having different views of the causes of criminality, leading to different views of punishment and the purposes of it. It also concludes that the correlation between punitive attitude and moral and social cohesion could be explained by the perception that severe sanctions clarify and reinforce the moral and social norms and values of society to a greater extent than milder sanctions. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- This study is about Swedish 18-30 year olds’ opinions on punishment, and, more specifically, which possible factors could explain why people have the opinions that they do, as well as how these factors actually impacts people’s attitudes. The factors that were chosen to be explored were political ideology as well as moral and social cohesion. In order to examine this, both interviews and a survey were conducted. The analyzing of the data gathered was done through theories from Heider, Maruna and King, as well as Boeckmann and Tyler. The result of the study shows that political ideology and social cohesion seems to have a small impact on people’s opinions on punishment, but the same can not be said for moral cohesion. Further studies are... (More)
- This study is about Swedish 18-30 year olds’ opinions on punishment, and, more specifically, which possible factors could explain why people have the opinions that they do, as well as how these factors actually impacts people’s attitudes. The factors that were chosen to be explored were political ideology as well as moral and social cohesion. In order to examine this, both interviews and a survey were conducted. The analyzing of the data gathered was done through theories from Heider, Maruna and King, as well as Boeckmann and Tyler. The result of the study shows that political ideology and social cohesion seems to have a small impact on people’s opinions on punishment, but the same can not be said for moral cohesion. Further studies are therefore needed to be able to determine whether there actually is a connection between these factors and people’s opinions on punishment. The
study also shows that the connection between political ideology and people’s opinions on punishment could be because of that different political ideologies have different views on why people commit crimes, and this could lead to the different views of punishment. The study also shows that the connection between moral and social cohesion and people’s
opinions of punishment could be because harsh punishments are perceived as reinforcing the norms of society to a greater extent than mild punishments. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9016891
- author
- Tillman, Markus LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOCM04 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Keywords: punitive attitude, political ideology, moral cohesion, social cohesion, mixed methods
- language
- English
- id
- 9016891
- date added to LUP
- 2020-06-12 08:29:46
- date last changed
- 2020-06-12 08:29:46
@misc{9016891,
abstract = {{The purpose of this paper was to contribute to an increased knowledge of the punitive attitudes of Swedish 18-30 year olds, and more specifically which potential factors could possibly explain why people have the different levels of punitive attitude that they do as, well as how these factors impact people’s level of punitive attitude. The variables that were chosen to be explored further were political ideology as well as social and moral cohesion. A mixed methods approach was utilized in order to collect the data, where the qualitative method consisted of interviews and the quantitative method consisted of an online survey.
Theories from Heider, Maruna and King, as well as Boeckmann and Tyler were used to analyze the data. The study concludes that political ideology and social cohesion seem to have a small correlation with punitive attitudes, whereas moral cohesion does not. However, more research is needed in order to establish whether there are any actual correlations between punitive attitude and polical ideology, and moral and social cohesion. The study also concludes that the correlation between political ideology and punitive attitudes could be a cause of different ideologies having different views of the causes of criminality, leading to different views of punishment and the purposes of it. It also concludes that the correlation between punitive attitude and moral and social cohesion could be explained by the perception that severe sanctions clarify and reinforce the moral and social norms and values of society to a greater extent than milder sanctions.}},
author = {{Tillman, Markus}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Perceptions of punishment: a mixed methods approach to understanding differing levels of punitive attitudes}},
year = {{2020}},
}