Crime Victims’ Belief in a Just World: Moderating Effects of Perceived Fair Treatment in the Criminal Justice Process

ABSTRACT

Criminal victimization is a potentially traumatizing event that can threaten the belief in a just world (BJW). Unlike other kinds of victims, victims of crime are involved in criminal justice procedures. Therefore, the present study examined whether positive experiences in this process can buffer the threat of victimization on the BJW. We collected cross-sectional data from victims of various crimes from Germany and Lithuania (total N = 241). Results showed that victims of very severe crimes had a lower BJW than victims of less severe crimes, however, fair treatment (provision of information) moderated this relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Belief in a just world
• criminal victimization
• informational justice
• perceived fair treatment
• criminal justice system

Acknowledgments

We want to thank Weisser Ring—the victim support organization in Germany that collaborated with us and helped us reach out to the victims of crime.

We thank Tanja Lischetzke, Charlotte Ottenstein, and Elizabeth Prestele for providing support for the statistical analyses.

We thank Neringa Grigutytė for providing valuable feedback on our perceived fair treatment measure.

The research and analysis plan were not preregistered in any registry.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Kotryna Stupnianek and Manfred Schmitt; Methodology and data collection: Kotryna Stupnianek; Data analysis: Kotryna Stupnianek; Writing - original draft preparation: Kotryna Stupnianek; Writing - review and editing: Kotryna Stupnianek and Manfred Schmitt; Supervision: Manfred Schmitt.

All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants who were included in the study.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the local ethics committee from the Psychology Department at the University of Koblenz-Landau (27.09.2017, No. 101_2017).

Availability of data and material

Stupnianek, K. (2020). Crime Victims’ Belief in a Just World: Do Perceptions of Justice in the Criminal Justice System Matter? Open Science Framework https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/HTZJQ

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2022.2141934

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.