Dealing with Offenders: Popular Opinion and the Views of Victims

Abstract

Abstract: Increasing emphasis is being placed both on achieving a better Jit between sentencing policy and public opinion and on meeting the needs and wishes of victims of crime. There has, however, been a dearth of factual information about the views both of the general public and of victims on punishment. This paper presents findings from the 1982 and 1984 sweeps of the British Crime Survey. The British Crime Survey suggests that neither public opinion nor victims' views are more punitive than current practice, and that people favour sentences involving compensation by offenders either to the victim or to the community. The paper also examines what factors make for punitive attitudes.