Mock jurors’ conservative ideology and punitiveness: the role of criminal justice orientations

This study expands previous research that explored why conservative jurors are more punitive towards criminal defendants than their liberal counterparts, by examining criminal justice orientations as another potential mediator between political ideology and punitiveness. An experiment was conducted based on a sample of 433 juror eligible adults recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. After reading one of the two randomly assigned criminal trial scenarios that varied the strength of critical evidence, participants rendered a verdict and recommended a sentence. Results showed that individuals with more conservative attitudes were more likely to support a guilty verdict and harsher sentences for the defendant. Relationships were largely explained by individuals' criminal justice orientations or value commitment regarding criminal justice operations. Results show that individuals' endorsement of different criminal justice orientations may be an important mechanism underlying the link between conservatism and juror punitiveness. Findings, implications, and future directions are discussed.