Framing the harms of wrongful convictions: how different narratives shape public opinion

IF 1.8 2区社会学 Q2 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY

Journal of Experimental Criminology Pub Date : 2025-01-25 DOI:10.1007/s11292-025-09660-1

Sishi Wu, Robert J. Norris

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

This research examines whether highlighting different harms of wrongful convictions has differential effects on public attitudes.

Methods

We use an online survey-experiment with 970 respondents recruited through CloudResearch’s MTurk Toolkit. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: (1) no-information control group, (2) wrongful conviction narrative, (3) wrongful conviction narrative + exoneree harm, (4) wrongful conviction narrative + original crime victim harm, and (5) wrongful conviction narrative + actual offender harm. We then assessed respondents’ victimization concerns and policy preferences.

Results

Highlighting different harms of wrongful convictions generally did not affect victimization concerns and had little effect on policy preferences. However, narratives about the exoneree’s suffering and public safety concerns consistently increased public support for exoneree compensation. We also found slight ideological differences in responses.

Conclusions

The findings support the notion that the consequences of wrongful convictions for public opinion are nuanced, dynamic, and multifaceted.

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构建错误定罪的危害：不同的叙述如何塑造公众舆论

目的探讨强调不同的错误定罪危害是否会对公众态度产生不同的影响。方法我们通过CloudResearch的MTurk Toolkit对970名受访者进行了在线调查实验。受访者被随机分配到以下五种情况：(1)无信息对照组，(2)错判叙事，(3)错判叙事+无罪伤害，(4)错判叙事+原罪受害者伤害，(5)错判叙事+实际罪犯伤害。然后，我们评估了受访者的受害担忧和政策偏好。结果强调错判的不同危害一般不影响受害关注，对政策偏好影响不大。然而，关于无罪释放者的苦难和公共安全问题的叙述不断增加公众对无罪释放者赔偿的支持。我们还发现，人们的反应存在轻微的意识形态差异。研究结果支持这样一种观点，即错误的判决对公众舆论的影响是微妙的、动态的和多方面的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Experimental Criminology CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY-

CiteScore

6.20

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Experimental Criminology focuses on high quality experimental and quasi-experimental research in the advancement of criminological theory and/or the development of evidence based crime and justice policy. The journal is also committed to the advancement of the science of systematic reviews and experimental methods in criminology and criminal justice. The journal seeks empirical papers on experimental and quasi-experimental studies, systematic reviews on substantive criminological and criminal justice issues, and methodological papers on experimentation and systematic review. The journal encourages submissions from scholars in the broad array of scientific disciplines that are concerned with criminology as well as crime and justice problems.