High authoritarian punitiveness targets low-status offenders, not authority figures or in-group allies

Evidence

Other studies help us make sense of these seemingly contradictory findings regarding the status of criminals. RWA scores correlated negatively with the sentences imposed upon a police officer who beat an “uppity” protestor (RWA, pp. 197-199). They also correlated negatively with punishment of a U.S. Air Force officer convicted of murder. The case paralleled the My Lai massacre; the officer had led unauthorized bombing raids against Vietnamese villages suspected of supporting the enemy (RWA, p. 233). Similarly, High RWA American students did mot want to punish Richard Nixon after he resigned (RWA, pp. 226-227). Finally, High RWAs showed another pronounced double standard in the sentencing of pro-gay versus anti-gay activists (EOF, pp. 112-114). If an anti-gay leader led an attack on a group of gay demonstrators, High RWAs tended to be lenient. But if it were the other way around, they became significantly more punitive. (Again, Lows punished the two assailants equally.) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 303

Categorization

• XREF: Directly corroborates the vault’s claims on authoritarianism predicting prejudice and in-group policing of outgroups (Whitehead & Perry, Cooper).
• SHARE: Nice concrete empirical illustration for someone working on double standards in moral punishment/legal judgment.