---

Presentation

J. Philip Erb
James Madison University

Subject Listing - Psychology
Advisor: Dr. Sherry Serdikoff

Friday, Oral Session 6, Presentation 2, Carmichael Hall 131

THE ROLE OF DISPOSITIONAL FORGIVENESS IN PREDICTING COLLEGE STUDENTS' ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PUNISHMENT OF OFFENDERS

The current criminal justice system is dominated by the retributive justice paradigm. In recent years proponents of the restorative justice model have suggested that adding policies and procedures that embrace their ideals would provide more efficacious and judicious outcomes. This study examines the relation between personality and situational factors that influence college students' attitudes towards the inclusion of restorative and retributive options when sentencing criminal offenders. Specifically, undergraduate college students complete a questionnaire packet that includes a measure of dispositional forgiveness, crime scenarios followed by ratings of sentencing options, and questions designed to gather demographic information. The relation between an individual's dispositional forgiveness and their rating of the sentencing options is explored in the context of scenarios describing crimes of differing severities. The data help us to understand how these factors act individually and in concert to affect such decisions and have implications for potential implementation of restorative justice components into the current criminal justice system.

Advisor: Dr. Sherry Serdikoff, Associate Professor, Psychology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA