Occupational Status, Impression Formation, and Criminal Sanctioning: A Vignette Experiment

• In Event: 597 - Section on Altruism, Morality and Social Solidarity Paper Session. Emotion and Social Solidarity (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)

Abstract

The existing literature on the effect of occupational status on criminal sentencing provides mixed results, with some studies showing white-collar criminals receive lighter sentences than comparable blue- or pink-collar offenders, other studies showing the reverse, and still other studies showing no differences by occupational status. We revisit this question using a vignette experiment that varies the offender’s occupational status (white-collar professional (attorney, executive, or physician) vs. blue- or pink-collar worker (handyman, nurse, or shop clerk)) and the word used to describe his crime (overcharge vs. rob). Drawing on affect control theory, we develop hypotheses regarding the way these two factors—occupational status and the crime word—should jointly affect sentencing recommendations. As predicted, participants recommend a lighter sentence for white-collar offenders and for offenders who are described as “overcharging” rather than “robbing.” Also as predicted, occupational status moderates the effect of the crime word, with white-collar offenders receiving a greater sentencing penalty than blue- and pink-collar offenders for robbery. Most of these effects persist when we control for eight perceptual factors central to current theories of judicial decision making, such as perceptions that the offender will repeat the crime, the offender’s tendency to obey the law, and the offender’s dangerousness, suggesting that judicial decision making may be rooted in factors that go beyond those considered in the current theories of judicial sentencing

Authors

• Marshall R. Schmidt, University of Oklahoma

• Amy Kroska, University of Oklahoma