Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• DeJong, William
• Morris, William N
• Hastorf, Albert H
• Lanzetta, John T

Titel

Effect of an escaped accomplice on the punishment assigned to a criminal defendant

Ist Teil von

• Journal of personality and social psychology, 1976-02, Vol.33 (2), p.192-198

Ort / Verlag

Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association

Erscheinungsjahr

1976

Quelle

APA PsycARTICLES

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• 124 university students read descriptions of fictitious criminal cases and then assigned punishment to the defendant. There were 8 different cases which varied along 3 dimensions: severity of crime (more or less severe); responsibility of the defendant (more or less responsible); and fate of the defendant's accomplice (escaped or captured). As predicted, a main effect for Fate of Accomplice was found, such that Ss tended to give less punishment to the defendant when the accomplice escaped. No support was found for an alternative hypothesis that the effect of the accomplice's escape on the punishment assigned would depend on the severity of the crime. While Ss were obviously concerned with equity relationships between the 2 criminals, main effects for Crime Severity and Degree of Defendant Responsibility suggested that Ss were also concerned with restoring equity to the "social exchange relationship" between the 2 criminals and the victim of the crime.