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Punishment goals of crime victims.
Journal article

Punishment goals of crime victims.

  • Orth U Department of Psychology, University of Berne, Muesmattstrasse 45, 3012 Berne, Switzerland. uli.orth@psy.unibe.ch
  • 2003-05-08
Published in:
  • Law and human behavior. - 2003
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Crime Victims
Emotions
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
Germany
Goals
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Psychological Tests
Punishment
Reproducibility of Results
Social Justice
Surveys and Questionnaires
Switzerland
English Research on subjective punishment goals has focused on the perspective of third-party observers of criminal offenses and neglected the perspective of victims. This study investigates punishment goals among 174 adult crime victims (rape and nonsexual assault) for each participant's real criminal case. Scales measuring support for punishment goals are constructed by factor analysis of an 18-item list. Results show that 5 highly supported goals can be distinguished: retaliation, recognition of victim status, confirmation of societal values, victim security, and societal security. Analysis of relations between punishment goal scales and personal variables, situational variables, and demanded punishment severity corroborates the view that the punishment goals revealed can be classified according to the two independent dichotomies of moral versus instrumental goals, and micro versus macro goals.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/115810
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