High authoritarians punish crimes less when the criminal targets groups they despise

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

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Mirrors the double-standard finding in Milgram’s and the selective punishment literature on authority-figure crimes; connects to the moral panic theme in the earlier chapter on criminal status.

Related

• High authoritarian punitiveness targets low-status offenders, not authority figures or in-group allies (similarity 0.94)
• Right-wing authoritarians apply harsher judgments to low-status or out-group offenders for identical acts. (similarity 0.87)
• Authoritarians’ punitive-justice stance reverses when the criminal attacked a disliked group (similarity 0.87)
• Authoritarians aggress mainly when authority sanctions their attacks. (similarity 0.83)
• Low authoritarians show double standards favoring liberal figures and causes (similarity 0.83)
• High-RWA males show elevated rates of sexual assault against women. (similarity 0.80)
• Authoritarians punish criminals partly out of disgust and personal satisfaction (similarity 0.79)
• Even on the left-wing authoritarian scale, right-wing authoritarians dominate the high-scorers. (similarity 0.79)
• People high in left-wing authoritarianism tended also to score high on right-wing authoritarianism (similarity 0.79)
• High RWAs blame victims rather than authorities who order harm (similarity 0.79)
• Authoritarians favor harsh punishment and reject lenient penal reform. (similarity 0.78)
• Authoritarian dispositions can attach to whichever authority happens to be in power (similarity 0.78)