Crime and punishment: Rural people are more punitive than city-dwellers

Abstract

Public attitudes towards punishment have been a key area of research in criminology. Criminologists are interested in the attitudes of the general public towards the punishment of those who have committed crime. <br/> This is especially important information because the public has a powerful political voice when it comes to the determining how we deal with and control crime. <br/> Research in this area has tended towards broad national examinations of punitive attitudes and has even looked at differences based on gender, age, class and education.