一般市民の量刑判断 : 応報のため?それとも再犯抑止やみせしめのため?

概要

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This study aimed at specifying lay judges' punishing strategy. Preceding experimental studies have concluded that the principal strategy is retribution because a crime's objective seriousness always affected preferred punishment. This conclusion is based on the assumption that objective seriousness is identical to subjective seriousness, which underlies retribution. We tested this assumption by directly assessing subjective seriousness while experimentally manipulating objective seriousness. A pass analysis of 128 college students' answers to a questionnaire revealed that objective seriousness affected preferred punishment directly without substantial mediation of subjective seriousness, probably through knowledge about the common relation between a crime's consequence and punishment. However, preferred punishment was also affected by subjective seriousness, which could be determined by such factors as a criminal's attribute other than objective seriousness. This latter finding confirmed that lay judges' punishing strategy is at least partly based on retribution.