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Abstract
Despite increasing public concern about corporate crime, socio-demographic variation in perceived seriousness and punitiveness continues to emerge. This study investigates whether differences in opinion about corporate violence originate from adherence to either dispositional or situational blame attribution styles. Four hundred and eight participants completed an online survey that measured their attribution style as well as their perceived seriousness of corporate violence, and punitiveness toward its perpetrators. Results of statistical analyses bring partial support for attribution theory. As expected, subjects more likely to endorse a dispositional attribution style (e.g. Blacks) generally displayed greater perceived seriousness of corporate violence and punitiveness toward its perpetrators. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that right-leaning political and religious ideology was predictive of a situational attribution style received little support. This study provides support for Unnever, Benson and Cullen’s hypothesis that Blacks’ negative attitudes toward corporate crime might be an expression of resistance against a system of white domination (2008). Implications of these findings are discussed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. It should be noted that the absence of prior research on the applicability of attribution theory to public response to corporate violence makes the present study merely exploratory in nature. As such, it must be considered the first foray in a series of empirical tests of an admittedly complex and multidimensional construct.
2. Consistent with Kramer’s conceptualization (Citation1983), targeted victims included customers in the first scenario, civilians in the second, and employees in the third. Recall that the defensive attribution theory argues that people are more likely to blame actions taken against individuals to whom they can personally relate. By focusing exclusively on corporate crime against workers, subjects who are socially distanced from the occupational hazards associated with the industrial sector might have expressed lesser perceptions of seriousness. Including civilians and customers allowed every subject to potentially identify with some of the victims.
3. From a methodological standpoint, the use of short scenarios may not have been the most practical avenue to tease out complex differences in perceived blameworthiness between subjects. Admittedly, the three vignettes presented to the respondents did not include precious information regarding the number of people involved in harmful corporate decisions, the hierarchical chain of command between the actual decision-makers and their subordinates, as well as the offenders’ knowledge about the potential harm they could cause and their intent to favor profit over human health. Future replications of this study should therefore provide participants with a richer description of the offenses and their repercussions on the victims coupled with a more detailed summary of individual responsibility within the corporate entity.
4. A reviewer rightly pointed out that various types of media (e.g. print, TV, Internet, radio, etc.) might affect the application of certain attribution styles. The media plays a primary role in the public pedagogy (Bullock Citation2007) on many issues surrounding various criminal justice-related matters. Therefore, media usage may be an important variable for future studies to measure, because the way the corporately run media portrays (i.e. through various framing, priming, applicability, and accessibility techniques) the perpetrators of these crimes may influence public perception and policy responses (e.g. Sellers, Desmarais, and Tirotti Citation2014). The reviewer suggested a replication of the present study using a multilevel factorial survey design with vignettes that could explore both micro- and macro-level variables (see Hox, Kreft, and Hermkens Citation1991). Such an approach might get at the complexity that the current study’s three vignettes lacked.