Perceived Dangerousness Mediates Punitive Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders: Results From a Vignette Experiment

The current study used an experimental vignette ( n = 1,093) to examine the effects of perpetrator sex and age, victim on simulated juror sentencing recommendations for individuals convicted sexual offenses (ICSO). Path analyses were see if differences in punitive attitudes could be explained by perceptions dangerousness participants attached experimentally manipulated variables, as hypothesized attribution theorists. Results show that consistently recommended longer sentences, higher fines, indicated greater support post-release sanctions male offenders, older perpetrators, offenders who victimized younger adolescents. analysis demonstrated partially mediated relationship between predictor variables sentence length, providing partial theory.