Creating a Balance in Sentencing Offenders: A Step Towards Restorative Justice
Journal: Loyola eCommons (Loyola University Chicago)
Year: 2010

Public sentencing preferences often determine the sentencing statutes created by legislators. Extracting public opinion is typically done through mass public opinion polls; however, research has found that these polls often produce misleading findings. In order to accurately dissect the various layers of laypersons' sentencing choices, a victim impact statement (VIS) and a statement of offender remorse were manipulated within a crime scenario depicting moderately severe crimes. A total of 215 pa