Citation

Bensimon M, Bodner E. Violence Vict. 2012; 27(3): 344-359.

Affiliation

Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Moshe.Bensimon@biu.ac.il

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Springer Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

22852436

Abstract

The extent to which the age of the offender or the victim influences respondents' respective evaluations of crime seriousness and punitiveness has rarely been studied. This study hypothesizes that evaluations of the severity of offenses with intrapersonal and interpersonal social implications and the estimation of their punitiveness will be more serious when the offenses are performed by younger than by older offenders and less serious when they harm younger as opposed to older victims. Results from 129 undergraduate students who were administered the Multidimensional Social Transgressions Scale (MSTS) confirm the hypotheses. The findings are discussed in light of crime theories, social theories, and ageism studies.

Language: en