Reactions to youth crime: perceptions of accountability and competency

• Published in: Behavioral sciences & the law Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 33 - 52
• Main Authors: Ghetti, Simona, Redlich, Allison D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.01.2001
• Subjects: Accountability; Adolescent; Adult; Age Differences; Age Factors; Child; Competence; Crime - legislation & jurisprudence; Crime - statistics & numerical data; Female; Humans; Juvenile Delinquency - legislation & jurisprudence; Juvenile Offenders; Legal competence; Male; Mental Competency - psychology; Middle Aged; Perception; Public Opinion; Random Allocation; Sentencing; Social Perception; Social Responsibility; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 0735-3936; 1099-0798
• DOI: 10.1002/bsl.426

Recent changes in juvenile justice policies have stimulated debate among legal professionals and social scientists. As such, public opinion concerning juvenile offenders is an important and timely topic for empirical study. In the present study, respondents read a scenario about a juvenile who committed a crime, and then decided on a sentence and rated perceptions of the juvenile's accountability and legal competence. Four between‐subject factors were manipulated: age of the defendant (11 versus 14 versus 17 years), type of crime (shooting versus arson), crime outcome (victim injured versus died), and time delay between the instigating incident and the crime (immediately versus one day). The type and outcome of the crime were major motivating factors in sentencing decisions and perceptions of legal competence, and, although younger offenders were seen as less accountable and less competent than older offenders, sentence allocation and attitudes towards punishment were not significantly affected by offender age. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.