Do Criminology Classes Make a Difference? Changes in Perceptions of Punishment Over Time

Abstract

Much research has centered on exploring the effect that education has on students’ attitudes, and, specifically, their thoughts regarding punitiveness toward offenders. Due to the use of cross-sectional data, the ability to adequately assess the effect that higher education has on these attitudes is largely limited. This study attempted to overcome this issue using a longitudinal research design with undergraduate students attending a university in the Northeast. The study examined if students’ level of punitiveness changes over time and which factors (e.g. taking criminology classes, class level, and political affiliation) contribute to this change. The main findings revealed that students in this study became more liberal by attending college; however, learning about crime and criminal justice made no difference to the students included in the analysis.

Notes

¹ For a detailed discussion of liberal hegemony in academia and, particularly, social sciences and the lack of conservative ideology across college campuses as well as the dangerous implications thereof see Wright and DeLisi (2016).

² A review the population and respondents at wave one demonstrates that the students who completed the survey are similar to the university’s population. Specifically, the population and participants were within a five percentage point range on age, race, and class level. The two groups differed, however, in terms of gender. Females were overrepresented among the survey participants.

³ A comparison between all survey respondents and participants included in the analysis in terms of CRIM classes in wave three was not possible due to the low number of students not being included in the analysis and their lack of variance in terms of CRIM classes (i.e. all survey participants not included in the analysis had no CRIM classes).

⁴ These items were: “crime is the product of a person's free will (i.e. people are not forced to commit crimes; it is their choice),” “crime in this country occurs because the criminal justice system does not make the punishment severe enough,” “the main reason why people break the law is that they figure they can get away with it,” and “people break the law because our criminal justice system does not punish criminals quickly enough.”

⁵ See footnote 1.