Face‐ing the Offender: Examining Public Attitudes Towards Young Offenders¹

[1] The preparation of this article was made possible by a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to A.N. Doob. I would like to thank Tony Doob and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. A previous version of this paper was presented at the American Society of Criminology meetings, San Francisco California November 2000.

Abstract

This study examines public ratings of youthful offenders based upon varying descriptions of their apparent age and maturity. The premise for this study rests on the assumption that the public will respond more favorably, and therefore, less punitively to the most ‘youthful’ characterization of an offender. Findings indicate that in general, having any information about a youth offender, regardless of the qualitative details of that information, resulted in more favorable ratings by the public. The results are considered in relation to the movement toward community involvement in the sanctioning of youth.

Keywords:

• Young Offenders
• Restorative Justice
• Community‐based Sentencing
• Age and maturity
• Youth policy and legislation

Notes

[1] The preparation of this article was made possible by a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to A.N. Doob. I would like to thank Tony Doob and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. A previous version of this paper was presented at the American Society of Criminology meetings, San Francisco California November 2000.

[2] This project was a result of a cooperative agreement between Operation Springboard and the Centre of Criminology at the University of Toronto, Canada. Goldfarb and Associates in Toronto, Ontario, carried out the survey. Funding for the project to Operation Springboard was provided by the Trillium Foundation and Bell Canada. The survey itself was carried out at a reduced cost by Goldfarb consultants.

[3] Details can be found in Doob A.N., J.B. Sprott, V. Marinos and K. Varma (1998). An Exploration of Ontario residents’ views of crime and the criminal justice system. Toronto: Centre of Criminology.

[4] Cullen, Fischer and Applegate (2000) correctly point out that survey research studies which ask the public about sentencing preferences do not distinguish between views on sentencing (as imposed by the courts) and correctional responses after sentencing. While this would have been a fruitful avenue to pursue, this study limits itself to questions about sentencing and not correctional outcomes.

[5] It is interesting to note that respondents were willing to assess these characteristics based upon the small amount of information they received. Obviously they were asked to answer the question whether they may have felt comfortable doing so or not, but it reveals that the public will assess cases with very little information (Roberts & Doob 1990).