Rehabilitative Attitudes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Natural Comparative Experiment

• In Event: New Perspectives on Crime and Justice

Abstract

This study examined the emotional impact of social isolation and acquired knowledge on shaping criminology and criminal justice students’ attitudes toward rehabilitation of convicted offenders during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed sample of N = 238 students from Israel and the United States was surveyed to ascertain the effect of isolation, knowledge, cultural differences and selected demographic variables on attitudes. A majority of respondents reported being affected by the lock-down and isolation, but the U.S. students reported more difficulties than their Israeli counterparts, who expressed significantly weaker attitudes for rehabilitation than the U.S. students. The findings support the hypotheses that both the affective component and the cognitive component are related to attitude and important in understanding how attitudes form. Students who reported that the isolation impacted them emotionally were more likely to exhibit attitudes support of rehabilitation. Knowledge was correlated to attitudes support of rehabilitation. The research validated the importance of the feelings and knowledge components in examining attitudes towards offenders’ rehabilitation.

Authors

• Lior Gideon, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

• Ronit Peled-Laskov, Ashkelon Academic College