Age, Criminal Punishment, and Accountability: What the Public Recommends for Guilty Defendants

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of a defendant’s age on public perceptions of recommended punishment, accountability, and the likelihood of re-offending. Methods: We use an experimental vignette design which provides a depiction of a violent robbery and vary the robber’s age from 15-25. Survey respondents were asked to recommend a prison sentence, a restitution amount, how accountable they believe the robber to be, and how likely he is to reoffend. Results: Overall, the was no significant effect of age on recommended prison sentence but a significant effect $389 (p = 0.022) on recommended restitution. Female respondents recommended an additional 0.270 (p = 0.002) years of prison for each year of defendant age and no significant difference for restitution. Male respondents had no significant difference in recommended prison time but recommended an additional $500 (p = 0.017) in restitution for each year of defendant age. There was no effect of defendant age on accountability or reoffending. Conclusion: These findings have implications on policies that differentiate punishment by offender age, and for restorative justice practices given differences in preferred punishment by gender.