Requesting penal punishment: expressing punitiveness according to the measure’s degree of specificity
Abstract
This paper studies the levels of punitiveness shown by the population when both global and specific measures are applied simultaneously. According to data from the 9th wave of the Citizen’s Panel for Social Research in Andalusia, Spain (Autumn 2019), the demand for tougher penalties is more pronounced when reacting to abstract crimes or criminals than specific cases and circumstances, or when choosing between the different types of legal punishment. However, it cannot be argued that global measures in the data generally show higher levels of punitiveness than specific ones, as this difference rests on the measure’s type of specificity. The most accentuated form of punitiveness is manifested through the acceptance of tougher penal treatment in the face of specific crimes. This assertion contradicts some of the findings made by the literature, although it could be explained by the social salience that the crimes used in the measures —violent and sexual crimes— have achieved as of lately.
Keywords
criminal punishment, punitiveness, measures of global and specific punitivenessReferences
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