Punitiveness tracked secular trends, not threat levels

Evidence

Signs of an enduring punitiveness toward criminals are an exception even to this generalization, however. Perhaps the appointments of more conservative federal judges is a legacy or ratchet of the conservative political victories of 1980, yet we must also account for the growth in support of capital punishment among the general public. This punitiveness toward a criminal outgroup may be maintained in part by prominent and graphic portrayals of crime in the news and entertainment media and the repeated emphasis on the threat of crime in the political appeals by candidates for public office. Whereas the lessening of economic and foreign policy threats may moderate the general authoritarian tendencies of the nation, the threat of crime seems to remain high, thereby eliciting high levels of specifically anticriminal authoritarian aggression in the American people. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 842 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Testing the reverse threat sequence rules out secular-trend explanations of authoritarianism.; Sustained media and political emphasis on crime keeps anticriminal punitiveness persistently high — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 842; Average-level comparisons can confound threat effects with long-term secular trends

Broader Connections

• Average-level comparisons can confound threat effects with long-term secular trends #expands (0.92)
• Sustained media and political emphasis on crime keeps anticriminal punitiveness persistently high #complicates (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 842