UNDERPUNISHING OFFENDERS - TOWARDS A THEORY OF LEGAL TOLERANCE

This paper presents the results of two case-sentencing surveys and com pares the demand for punishment (as expressed by the public) to its su pply (as measured by the sentencing preferences of court actors). Find ings show criminal court actors to hold significantly less punitive vi ews than the public. This ''underpunishing bias'' cannot be explained away in terms of differential assessments of perceived crime seriousne ss, the socio-demographic background of respondents, or the presumed i rrationality of public opinon. The crucial factors are to be found els ewhere: both sets of respondents differ significantly in the amount of responsibility they attribute to offenders; they also differ in how c ertain they are of achieving their normative goals. Relying on cogniti ve attribution research as well as on equity theory, the discrepancy i n sentencing preferences between criminal court actors and public opin ion is shown to be intrinsically linked to their cognitive status as a ctors and observers of just deserts.