How Criminology Affects Punishment: Analyzing Conditions under Which Scientific Information Affects Sanction Policy Decisions

• In Event: Factors that Shape Criminal Policy Decision Making

Abstract

Criminology has a strong potential to impact criminal justice policy. Yet, all too often criminological science does not influence policy. It is thought that criminology fails to shape policy because of the political context and nature such policy exists in. However, we do not know whether criminological knowledge could shape policy decision making when there is no specific political context present. The present study analyses this question through a vignette study (N = 212) comparing how participants, who are not tasked to take a political context into account, make criminal sanction policy decisions with or without reading criminological findings about the deterrent effect of longer sentences. It further studies whether the influence of criminological science on policy decisions remains the same when harm to victims is made salient in the presented vignette. The study finds that when presented outside of a particular political context criminological science can impact policy decision making, even when policy makers are asked to consider harms to victims.

Authors

• Malouke Kuiper, University of Amsterdam

• Christopher P. Reinders Folmer, University of Amsterdam

• Emmeke Kooistra, NSCR

• Greg Pogarsky, University at Albany - SUNY

• Benjamin van Rooij, University of Amsterdam