Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T15:23:52.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Three Strikes and You Are Out, but Why? The Psychology of Public Support for Punishing Rule Breakers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Tom R. Tyler  and
Robert J. Boeckmann
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines why the public supports the punishment of rule breakers. It does so within the context of a recently enacted California initiative mandating life in prison for repeat felons (the “three strikes” law). Antecedents of three aspects of people's reactions to rule breakers are explored: (1) support for the three strikes initiative, (2) support for punitiveness in dealing with rule breakers, and (3) willingness to abandon procedural protections when dealing with potential rule breakers. The results of interviews with members of the public suggest that the widely held view that public punitiveness develops primarily from concerns about crime and the courts and is primarily linked to public views about risk and dangerousness is incorrect. While these factors do influence public feelings, they are not the central reasons underlying public punitiveness. Instead, the source of people's concerns lies primarily in their evaluations of social conditions, including the decline in morality and discipline within the family and increases in the diversity of society. These concerns are about issues of moral cohesion—with people feeling that the quality and extent of social bonds and social consensus has deteriorated in American society.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , 1997 , pp. 237 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We would like to thank Naomi Brandes, Jeannie Brown, Elizabeth Dresel, Julia Jim, and Alice Liu for their help with this project. We would also like to thank E. Allan Lind, Stuart Scheingold, and several anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on our initial manuscript.

References

Abrams, Dominic, & Hogg, Michael A. (1990) Social Identity Theory: Constructive and Critical Advances. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Adler, Jane W., Hensler, Deborah R., & Nelson, Charles E. (1983) Simple Justice: How Litigants Fare in the Pittsburgh Court Arbitration Program. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.Google Scholar
Altemeyer, Robert (1981) Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Winnipeg, Canada: Univ. of Manitoba Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Azzi, Assaad (in press) “From Competitive Interests, Perceived Injustice and Identity Needs to Collective Action: Psychological Mechanisms of Ethnic Nationalism,” in Kapferer, B., ed., Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Violence.Google Scholar
Bies, Robert J., & Tripp, Thomas M. (1996) “Beyond Distrust: ‘Getting Even’ and the Need for Revenge,” in Kramer & Tyler 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boeckmann, Robert, & Tyler, Tom R. (1996) “Liabilities of Group Membership: Social Identification and Categorization Influences on Retributive Justice.” Unpub. MS., Univ. of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John (1989) Crime, Shame, and Reintegration. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Rupert (1988) Group Processes: Dynamics within and between Groups. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Carroll, John S., Perkowitz, William T., Lurigio, Arthur J., & Weaver, Frances M. (1987) “Sentencing Goals, Causal Attributions, Ideology, and Personality,” 52 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 107–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Castellano, Thomas C., & McGarrell, Edmund F. (1991) “The Politics of Law and Order: Case Study Evidence for a Conflict Model of the Criminal Law Formation Process,” 28 J. of Research on Crime & Delinquency 304–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chancer, Lynn, & Donovan, Pamela (1994) “A Mass Psychology of Punishment: Crime and the Futility of Rationally Based Approaches,” 21 (3) Social Justice 50–72.Google Scholar
Cohn, Ellen S., & White, Susan O. (1990) Legal Socialization: A Study of Norms and Rules. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, Steven F., Barkan, Steven E., & Halteman, William A. (1991) “Punitive Attitudes toward Criminals: Racial Consensus or Racial Conflict,” 38 Social Problems 287–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conley, John M., & O'Barr, William M. (1990) Rules versus Relationships: The Ethnography of Legal Discourse. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cullen, Francis T., Clark, Gregory A., Cullen, John B., & Mathers, Richard A. (1985) “Attribution, Salience, and Attitudes toward Criminal Sentencing,” 12 Criminal Justice & Behavior 305–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doob, Anthony N., & Roberts, Julian L. (1988) “Public Punitiveness and Public Knowledge of the Facts: Some Canadian Surveys,” in Walker, N. & Hough, M., eds., Public Attitudes to Sentencing: Surveys from Five Countries. Aldershot, Eng.: Gower.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile (1933) The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Macmillan Co.Google Scholar
Ellsworth, Phoebe C., & Gross, Samuel R. (1994) “Hardening of the Attitudes: Americans' Views on the Death Penalty,” 50 J. of Social Issues 19–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feather, Norman T. (1996) “Reactions to Penalties for an Offense in Relation to Authoritarianism, Values, Perceived Responsibility, Perceived Seriousness, and Deservingness,” 71 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 571–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finkel, Norman J. (1995) Commonsense Justice: Jurors' Notions of the Law. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Fondacaro, Mark R., & Dunkle, Michael E. (1996) “Procedural Justice in Resolving Family Disputes: A Psychosocial Analysis of Individual and Family Functioning in Late Adolescence.” Center on Children, Family & the Law, Univ. of Nebraska.Google Scholar
Furnham, Adrian, & Henderson, Monika (1983) “Lay Theories of Delinquency,” 13 European J. of Social Psychology 107–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garland, David (1990) Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaubatz, Kathlyn Taylor (1995) Crime in the Public Mind. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwood, Peter W., Rydell, C. Peter, Abrahamse, Allan F., Caulkins, Jonathan P., Chiesa, James, Model, Karyn E., & Klein, Stephen P. (1994) Three Strikes and You're Out: Estimated Benefits and Costs of California's New Mandatory-Sentencing Law. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.Google Scholar
Gusfield, Joseph R. (1963) Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, V. Lee, & Sanders, Joseph (1983) “Universals in Judging Wrongdoing: Japanese and Americans Compared,” 48 American Sociological Rev. 199–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, V. Lee, Sanders, Joseph, et al. (1988) “Punishment and the Individual in the United States and Japan,” 22 Law & Society Rev. 301–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, Keith, ed. (1992) The Uses of Discretion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L. (1995) Facing up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of a Nation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hogan, Robert, & Emler, P. Nicholas (1981) “Retributive Justice,” in Lerner & Lerner 1981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogg, Michael A., & Abrams, Dominic (1988) Social Identifications: A Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations and Group Processes. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hollin, Clive R., & Howells, Kevin (1987) “Lay Explanations of Delinquency: Global or Offence-Specific?” 26 British J. of Social Psychology 203–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jöreskog, Karl G., & Sorbom, Dag (1993) LISREL 8: Structural Equation Modeling with the SIMPLIS Command Language. Chicago: Scientific Software.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., & Sears, David O. (1981) “Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism versus Racial Threats to the Good Life,” 40 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 414–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitzmann, Katherine M., & Emery, Robert E. (1993) “Procedural Justice and Parents' Satisfaction in a Field Study of Child Custody Dispute Resolution,” 17 Law & Human Behavior 553–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koper, Gerda, Knippenberg, Doan van, Bouhuijs, Francien, Vermunt, R., & Wilke, Henk (1993) “Procedural Fairness and Self-Esteem,” 23 European J. of Social Psychology 313–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Roderick M., & Tyler, Tom R., eds. (1996) Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lau, Richard R., Brown, Thad A., & Sears, David O. (1978) “Self-Interest and Civilians' Attitudes toward the Vietnam War,” 42 Public Opinion Q. 464–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Melvin J., & Lerner, Sally C., eds. (1981) The Justice Motive in Social Behavior: Adapting to Times of Scarcity and Change. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lind, E. Allan, & Tyler, Tom R. (1988) The Social Psychology of Procedural Justice. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin, & Schneider, William (1983) The Confidence Gap: Business, Labor, and Government in the Public Mind. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Liska, Allen E., & Bellair, Paul E. (1995) “Violent-Crime Rates and Racial Composition: Convergence over Time,” 101 American J. of Sociology 578–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacCoun, Robert J., Lind, E. Allan, Hensler, Deborah R., Bryant, David L., & Ebener, Patricia A. (1988) Alternative Adjudication: An Evaluation of the New Jersey Automobile Arbitration Program. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.Google Scholar
McClosky, Herbert, & Brill, Alida (1983) Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
McLarney, Timothy P. (1996) “Rational Public(s)?: Personal Risk, Risk Perceptions, and Policy Preferences Regarding Crime in America, 1973–1991.” Delivered at Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago (April).Google Scholar
Miller, Dale T., & Vidmar, Neil (1981) “The Social Psychology of Punishment Reactions,” in Lerner & Lerner 1981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, Richard G. (1973) “Political Socialization,” in Knutson, J. N., ed., Handbook of Political Psychology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Oakes, Penelope J., Haslam, S. Alexander, & Turner, John C. (1994) Stereotyping and Social Reality. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Paternoster, Raymond, Brame, Robert, Bachman, Ronet, & Sherman, Lawrence W. (1997) “Do Fair Procedures Matter?: The Effect of Procedural Justice on Spouse Assault,” 31 Law & Society Rev. 163–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poythress, Norman G. (1994) “Procedural Preferences, Perceptions of Fairness, and Compliance with Outcomes: A Study of Alternatives to the Standard Advocacy Trial Procedure,” 18 Law & Human Behavior 361–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruitt, Dean G., Peirce, Robert S., McGillicuddy, Neil B., Welton, Gary L., & Castrianno, Lynn M. (1993) “Long-Term Success in Mediation,” 17 Law & Human Behavior 313–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Julian L. (1996) “Public Opinion, Criminal Record, and the Sentencing Process,” 39 Scientist 488.Google Scholar
Robinson, John P., & Shaver, Phillip R. (1973) Measures of Social Psychological Attitudes. Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research.Google Scholar
Robinson, Paul H., & Darley, John M. (1995) Justice, Liability, and Blame: Community Views and the Criminal Law. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Rubin, Lillian B. (1986) Quiet Rage: Bernie Goetz in a Time of Madness. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.Google Scholar
Sanders, Joseph, & Hamilton, V. Lee (1987) “Is There a ‘Common Law’ of Responsibility?” 11 Law & Human Behavior 277–97.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin (1977) “Studying American Legal Culture: An Assessment of Survey Evidence,” 11 Law & Society Rev. 427–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savelsberg, Joachim J. (1994) “Knowledge, Domination, and Criminal Punishment,” 99 American J. of Sociology 911.Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A. (1974) The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy, and Political Change. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A. (1991) The Politics of Street Crime: Criminal Processes and Cultural Obsession. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O. (1990) “Whither Political Socialization Research? The Question of Persistence,” in Ichilov, O., ed., Political Socialization, Citizenship Education, and Democracy. New York: Teacher's College Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., & Funk, Carolyn L. (1990a) “The Limited Effect of Economic Self-Interest on the Political Attitudes of the Mass Public,” 19 J. of Behavioral Economics 247–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O., & Funk, Carolyn L. (1990b) “Self-interest in Americans' Political Opinions,” in Mansbridge, J. J., ed., Beyond Self-Interest. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., & Huddy, Leonie (1993) “The Symbolic Politics of Opposition to Bilingual Education,” in Worchel, S. & Simpson, J. A., eds., Conflict between People and Groups: Causes, Processes, and Resolutions. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., & Kinder, Donald R. (1985) “Whites' Opposition to Busing: On Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Group Conflict,” 48 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 1148–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O., Lau, Richard R., Tyler, Tom R., & Allen, Harris M. Jr. (1980) “Self-Interest vs. Symbolic Politics in Policy Attitudes and Presidential Voting,” 74 American Political Science Rev. 670–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Jonathan (1995) “They Died with Their Boots on: The Boot Camp and the Limits of Modern Penality,” 22 (2) Social Justice 25–49.Google Scholar
Smith, H. J., & Tyler, Tom R. (1997) “Choosing the Right Pond: The Impact of Group Membership on Self-Esteem and Group-Oriented Behavior,” 33 J. of Experimental Social Psychology 146–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stinchcombe, Arthur L., Adams, Rebecca, Heimer, Carol A., Scheppele, Kim Lane, Smith, Tom W., & Taylor, D. Garth (1980) Crime and Punishment—Changing Attitudes in America. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Sullivan, John Lawrence, Piereson, James, & Marcus, George E. (1982) Political Tolerance and American Democracy. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, D. Garth, Scheppele, Kim Lane, & Stinchcombe, Arthur L. (1979) “Salience of Crime and Support for Harsher Criminal Sanctions,” 26 Social Problems 413–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tittle, Charles R. (1977) “Sanction Fear and the Maintenance of Social Order,” 55 Social Forces 579–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troldahl, Verling, & Carter, Roy (1964) “Random Selection of Respondents within Households in Phone Surveys,” 1 J. of Marketing Research 71–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, John C. (1987) Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self Categorization Theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Turner, John C. (1991) Social Influence. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks-Cole.Google Scholar
Turner, John C., & Giles, Howard, eds. (1981) Intergroup Behavior. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1984) “Assessing the Risk of Crime Victimization: The Integration of Personal Victimization Experience and Socially Transmitted Information,” 40 J. of Social Issues 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1988) “What Is Procedural Justice? Criteria Used by Citizens to Assess the Fairness of Legal Procedures,” 22 Law & Society Rev. 103–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1989) “The Psychology of Procedural Justice: A Test of the Group-Value Model,” 57 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 830–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1990) Why People Obey the Law. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1995a) “The Psychology of Legitimacy.” MS., Univ. of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1995b) “Ethnicity and Disputing.” MS., Univ. of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., Boeckmann, Robert J., Smith, Heather J., & Huo, Yuen J. (1997) Social Justice in a Diverse Society. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Cook, Fay Lomax (1984) “The Mass Media and Judgments of Risk: Distinguishing Impact on Personal and Societal Level Judgments,” 47 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 693–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Degoey, Peter (1995) “Collective Restraint in a Social Dilemma Situation,” 69 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 482–97.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Degoey, Peter (1996) “Trust in Organizational Authorities: The Influence of Motive Attributions on Willingness to Accept Decisions,” in Kramer & Tyler 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., Degoey, Peter, & Smith, Heather J. (1996) “Understanding Why the Justice of Group Procedures Matters: A Test of the Psychological Dynamics of the Group-Value Model,” 70 J. of Personality & Social Psychology 913–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Lind, E. Allan (1992) “A Relational Model of Authority in Groups,” in Zanna, M. P., ed., Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 25. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Lind, E. Allan (in press) “Procedural Justice,” in Sanders, J. & Hamilton, V. L., eds., Handbooks of Law and Social Science: Justice Reader. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., & Smith, Heather J. (1997) “Social Justice and Social Movements,” in D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey, eds., Handbook of Social Psychology. New York: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Tyler Tom, R., & Weber, Renee (1982) “Support for the Death Penalty: Instrumental Response to Crime or Symbolic Attitude?” 17 Law of Society Rev. 21–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidmar, Neil (1974) “Retributive and Utilitarian Motives and Other Correlates of Canadian Attitudes toward the Death Penalty,” 15 Canadian Psychologist 337–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidmar, Neil, & Ellsworth, Phoebe (1974) “Public Opinion and the Death Penalty,” 26 Stanford Law Rev. 1245–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidmar, Neil, & Miller, Dale T. (1980) “Socialpsychological Processes Underlying Attitudes toward Legal Punishment,” 14 Law & Society Rev. 565–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zamble, Edward, & Kalm, Kerry Lee (1990) “General and Specific Measures of Public Attitudes toward Sentencing,” 22 Canadian J. of Behavioural Science 327–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimring, Frank, & Hawkins, Gordon (1995) “Is American Violence a Crime Problem?” Presented at California Policy Seminar Meeting, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Zimring, Franklin E., Hawkins, Gordon, & Ibser, Hank (1995) Estimating the Effect of Increased Incarceration on Crime in California. Berkeley: California Policy Seminar.Google Scholar