Exposure to Political Rhetoric and the Dimensions of Public Opinion about Criminal Justice

• In Event: Understanding Punitiveness and Support for Rehabilitation

Abstract

In this study, we test how exposure to politicians’ “tough on crime” versus “smart on crime” rhetoric affects public opinion about criminal justice using an experimental design. According to framing theory, exposure to alternate presentations of a political issue leads people to cognitively “weight” some aspects of the issue more heavily than others. This change in the importance attributed to some dimensions of the issue over others alters the nature of the opinions that people express about the issue. Using factor analysis, we find that the dimensions of public opinion about criminal justice significantly differed across rhetoric treatment condition. These results suggest that alternative frames about justice affect the very manner in which people perceive connections between punitive, progressive, and preventive policies. We discuss the implications of these findings for both the study of public opinion about criminal justice and the nature of issue advocacy in the “smart on crime” movement.

Authors

• Kevin Wozniak, University of Massachusetts, Boston

• Devon Johnson, George Mason University

• Edward R. Maguire, American University