BLAME AND PUNISHMENT - ATTITUDES TO JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL OFFENDING

Responses of 139 undergraduate social welfare students and 79 communit y members to a questionnaire regarding contemporary issues in juvenile and general justice were partially accounted for by a Punitive-intern al factor. Scores on a resultant a-item index of punitive-internal alt itudes were positively correlated with scores on belief in a just worl d and were lower for social welfare students than for community member s. In a follow-up study with a second sample of 78 community members, scores on the Punitive-Internal index were significantly related to ra tings on measures of attitude toward authority and political conservat ism but not to reported experience of crime. Findings are consistent w ith previous research and indicate that opinions on juvenile offending have a similar attitudinal basis to opinions on offending in general.