Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-jtdwj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T08:06:22.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Punishment and Beyond: Achieving Justice Through the Satisfaction of Multiple Goals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Dena M. Gromet  and
John M. Darley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We investigated the hypothesis that people's need for punishment does not preclude a desire for restorative sanctions that address the repairing of the harm to victims and communities caused by wrongdoing. Study 1 showed that although people felt it was important to punish the offender to achieve justice, they viewed additional justice goals as equally necessary. Study 2 revealed that people viewed sanctions as differentially able to fulfill various justice goals. Study 3 showed that the target on which respondents focused—the offender, victim, or community—determined which sanctions they selected to achieve justice; and that people did tend, by default, to focus on punishing the offender when responding to crime. These findings, taken together, suggest that people view the satisfaction of multiple justice goals as an appropriate and just response to wrongdoing, which allows for a possible reconciliation between the “conflicting” goals of restorative and retributive justice.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 1 - 37
Copyright
© 2009 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

We thank Alison Newman and Valerie Loehr for research assistance, and Geoffrey Goodwin, Thomas Trail, Carroll Seron, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

Alicke, Mark D. (2000) “Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame,” 126 Psychological Bulletin 556–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barton, Charles K. B. (1999) Getting Even: Revenge as a Form of Justice. Peru, IL: Open Court Publishing.Google Scholar
Bazemore, Gordon (1998) “Restorative Justice and Earned Redemption: Communities, Victims, and Offender Reintegration,” 41 American Behavioral Scientist 768–813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bower, Gordon H. (1978) “Experiments on Story Comprehension and Recall,” 1 Discourse Processes 211–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, John (1989) Crime, Shame, and Reintegration. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, John (2002) Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John, & Strang, Heather (2001) “Introduction: Restorative Justice and Civil Society,” in Braithwaite, J., & Strang, H., eds., Restorative Justice and Civil Society. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Carlsmith, Kevin M. (2006) “The Roles of Retribution and Utility in Determining Punishment,” 42 J. of Experimental Social Psychology 437–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlsmith, Kevin M. et al. (2002) “Why Do We Punish? Deterrence and Just Deserts as Motives for Punishment,” 83 J. of Personality and Social Psychology 284–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carroll, John S., et al. (1987) “Sentencing Goals, Causal Attributions, Ideology, and Personality,” 52 J. of Personality and Social Psychology 107–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chaiken, Susan, & Trope, Yaacov (1999) Dual Process Theories in Social Psychology. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Currie, Elliot (1998) Crime and Punishment in America. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Darley, John M., et al. (2000) “Incapacitation and Just Deserts as Motives for Punishment,” 24 Law and Human Behavior 659–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Darley, John M., & Pittman, Thane S. (2003) “The Psychology of Compensatory and Retributive Justice,” 7 Personality and Social Psychology Rev. 324–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Keijser, Jan W., et al. (2002) “From Moral Theory to Penal Attitudes and Back: A Theoretically Integrated Modeling Approach,” 20 Behavioral Sciences and the Law 317–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doble, John, & Greene, Judith (2000) Attitudes towards Crime and Punishment in Vermont: Public Opinion about an Experiment with Restorative Justice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: John Doble Research Associates.Google Scholar
Domanick, Joe (2004) Cruel Justice. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Doob, Anthony N., & Roberts, Julian (1988) “Public Punitiveness and Public Knowledge of the Facts: Some Canadian Surveys,” in Walker, N. & Hough, M., eds., Public Attitudes to Sentencing: Surveys from Five Countries. Brookfield, VT: Gower Publishing.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile (1983) Durkheim and the Law, Eds. Lukes, S. & Scull, A. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Fehr, Ernst, & Fischbacher, Urs (2004) “Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms,” 25 Evolution and Human Behavior 63–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Julie H., et al. (1999) “Rage and Reason: The Psychology of the Intuitive Prosecutor,” 29 European J. of Social Psychology 781–95.3.0.CO;2-3>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Sandra, et al. (1997) “An Attributional Analysis of Punishment Goals and Public Reactions to O. J. Simpson,” 23 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 331–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gromet, Dena M. (in press) Psychological Perspectives on the Place of Restorative Justice in Criminal Justice Systems,” in Oswald, M. et al., eds., Social Psychology of Punishment of Crime. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gromet, Dena M., & Darley, John M. (2006) “Restoration and Retribution: How Including Retributive Components Affects the Acceptability of Restorative Justice Procedures,” 19 Social Justice Research 395–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hans, Valerie P., & Ermann, M. David (1989) “Responses to Corporate Versus Individual Wrongdoing,” 13 Law and Human Behavior 151–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Paige M., & Beck, Allen J. (2006) Prisoners in 2005. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, Office of Justice Programs, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p05.htm.Google Scholar
Jost, John T., et al. (2003) “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,” 129 Psychological Bulletin 339–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahneman, Daniel (2003) “A Perspective on Judgment and Choice: Mapping Bounded Rationality,” 58 American Behavioral Scientist 697–720.Google ScholarPubMed
Kahneman, Daniel, & Frederick, Shane (2002) “Representativeness Revisited: Attribute Substitution in Intuitive Judgment,” in Gilovich, T. et al., eds., Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Marshall, Tony F. (2003) “Restorative Justice: An Overview,” in Johnstone, G., ed., A Restorative Justice Reader: Texts, Sources, and Context. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.Google Scholar
McFatter, Robert M. (1978) “Sentencing Philosophies and Justice: Effects of Punishment Philosophy on Sentencing Decisions,” 36 J. of Personality and Social Psychology 1490–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFatter, Robert M. (1982) “Purposes of Punishment: Effects of Utilities of Criminal Sanctions on Perceived Appropriateness,” 67 J. of Applied Psychology 255–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGarrell, Edmund F., & Sandys, Marla (1996) “The Misperception of Public Opinion toward Capital Punishment: Examining the Spuriousness Explanation of Death Penalty Support,” 39 American Behavioral Scientist 500–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Michael W., & Peng, Kaiping (1994) “Culture and Cause: American and Chinese Attributions for Social and Physical Events,” 67 J. of Personality and Social Psychology 949–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nisbett, Richard E., & Wilson, Timothy D. (1977) “Telling More than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes,” 84 Psychological Rev. 231–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Hara, Erin A. (2005) “Victim Participation in the Criminal Process,” 13 J. of Law and Policy 229–47.Google Scholar
Oswald, Margit E., et al. (2002) “Lay-Perspectives on Criminal Deviance, Goals of Punishment, and Punitivity,” 15 Social Justice Research 85–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Julian V., & Stalans, Lorena J. (2004) “Restorative Sentencing: Exploring the Views of the Public,” 17 Social Justice Research 315–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Paul H., & Darley, John M. (1995) Justice, Liability, and Blame. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, Paul H., & Darley, John M. (2004) “Does Criminal Law Deter? A Behavioural Science Investigation,” 24 Oxford J. of Legal Studies 173–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Lee D. (1977) “The Intuitive Psychologist and His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process,” in Berkowitz, L., ed., Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 10). New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Rucker, Derek D., et al. (2004) “On the Assignment of Punishment: The Impact of General-Societal Threat and the Moderating Role of Severity,” 30 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 673–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shaver, Kelly G. (1985) The Attribution of Blame. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Jonathan (2007) Governing through Crime. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Stillwell, Arlene M., & Baumeister, Roy F. (1997) “The Construction of Victim and Perpetrator Memories: Accuracy and Distortion in Role-Based Accounts,” 23 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 1157–72.Google Scholar
Strang, Heather, & Sherman, Lawrence W. (2003) “Repairing the Harm: Victims and Restorative Justice,” 1 Utah Law Rev. 15–42.Google Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E. (1986) “A Value Pluralism Model of Ideological Reasoning,” 50 J. of Personality and Social Psychology 819–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E. (2000) “Coping with Trade-Offs: Psychological Constraints and Political Implications,” in Lupia, S. et al., eds., Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E., Peterson, Randall S., & Lerner, Jennifer S. (1996) “Revising the Value Pluralism Model: Incorporating Social Content and Context Postulates,” in Seligman, C. et al., eds., Ontario Symposium on Social and Personality Psychology: Values. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E., et al. (2007) “People as Intuitive Prosecutors: The Impact of Social-Control Goals on Attributions of Responsibility,” 43 J. of Experimental Social Psychology 195–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tonry, Michael (2004) Thinking About Crime. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (2006) Why People Obey the Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Boeckmann, Robert J. (1997) “Three Strikes and You Are Out, But Why? The Psychology of Public Support for Punishing Rule Breakers,” 31 Law & Society Rev. 237–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Weber, Renee (1982) “Support for the Death Penalty: Instrumental Response to Crime, or Symbolic Attitude?,” 17 Law & Society Rev. 21–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., et al. (1997) Social Justice in a Diverse Society. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Justice (2003) Federal Prison System Operating Cost per Inmate. Department of Justice Budget Summary 2002, Justice Management Division. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Warr, Mark, & Stafford, Mark (1984) “Public Goals of Punishment and Support for the Death Penalty,” 21 J. of Research in Crime and Delinquency 95–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, Bernard, et al. (1997) “An Attributional Examination of Retributive versus Utilitarian Philosophies of Punishment,” 10 Social Justice Research 431–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenzel, Michael, & Thielmann, Ines (2006) “Why We Punish in the Name of Justice: Just Desert versus Value Restoration and the Role of Social Identity,” 19 Social Justice Research 450–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenzel, Michael, et al. (2008) “Retributive and Restorative Justice,” 32 Law and Human Behavior 375–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vidmar, Neil, & Miller, Dale T. (1980) “Social Psychological Processes Underlying Attitudes toward Legal Punishment,” 14 Law & Society Rev. 401–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar