Belief in Redeemability and Intolerance of Ambiguity – Important Predictors of Individual’s Acceptance of Rehabilitation and Conflict Resolution in Dealing with Crime and Criminals

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Results of a recent empirical research on factors influencing individual attitudes towards punishment will be presented. Central theoretical concepts in explaining individual’s tendency to favor exclusion and punitivity are “belief in redeemability” and “intolerance of ambiguity”.
People vary in their tendency to perceive ambiguous situations, characterized by novelty and complexity, as sources of threat. The more ambiguous situations are perceived as threatening, the higher the tendency to distinguish crime and criminals as particularly dangerous to one’s personal integrity. This negatively impacts on the acceptance of rehabilitative measure of penal law.
According to the concept of “belief in redeemability” persons vary in the degree they believe that criminality is malleable and that offender can change. We suppose that belief in redeemability is related to certain personality traits, particularly to intolerance of ambiguity.
We hypothesized (1) that intolerance of ambiguity is strongly linked to individual punitive attitude towards crime. Furthermore we hypothesized (2) that the effect of intolerance of ambiguity on punitive attitudes is mediated by “belief in redeemability”.
Hypotheses were tested using data of a standardized student survey (n=549).

Authors

• Maximilian Kock, University of Hamburg

• Lea Babucke, University of Hamburg