PUBLIC PREFERENCES FOR REHABILITATION VERSUS INCARCERATION OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS: EVIDENCE FROM A CONTINGENT VALUATION SURVEY*

作     者：DANIEL S. NAGIN ALEX R. PIQUERO ELIZABETH S. SCOTT LAURENCE STEINBERG 

作者机构：Professor of Public Policy and Statistics Heinz School of Public Policy and Management Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on the evolution of criminal and antisocial behaviors over the life course the deterrent effect of criminal and non-criminal penalties on illegal behaviors and the development of statistical methods for analyzing longitudinal data. He is the author of Group-based Modeling of Development (Harvard University Press 2005). Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Between 1988 and 2006 she was on the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law. Distinguished University Professor and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology at Temple University and Director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. Dr. Steinberg's research has focused on a range of topics in the study of contemporary adolescence including parent-adolescent relationships adolescent employment high-school reform and juvenile crime and justice. Dr. Steinberg is a member of the National Academies' Board on Children Youth and Families and its Committee on the Science of Adolescent Health and Behavior and he has been a frequent consultant to state and federal agencies and lawmakers on child labor secondary education and juvenile justice policy. 

出 版 物：《Criminology & Public Policy》 

年 卷 期：2006年第5卷第4期

学科分类：12[管理学] 1204[管理学-公共管理] 120401[管理学-行政管理] 

主　　题：Public Opinion Punishment Rehabilitation Juvenile Justice Prevention Crime Policy 

摘      要：Research Summary: Accurately gauging the public s support for alternative responses to juvenile offending is important, because policy makers often justify expenditures for punitive juvenile justice reforms on the basis of popular demand for tougher policies. In this study, we assess public support for both punitively and nonpunitively oriented juvenile justice policies by measuring respondents willingness to pay for various policy proposals. We employ a methodology known as “contingent valuation (CV) that permits the comparison of respondents willingness to pay (WTP) for competing policy alternatives. Specifically, we compare CV-based estimates for the public s WTP for two distinctively different responses to serious juvenile crime: incarceration and rehabilitation. An additional focus of our analysis is an examination of the public s WTP for an early childhood prevention program. The analysis indicates that the public is at least as willing to pay for rehabilitation as punishment for juvenile offenders and that WTP for early childhood prevention is also substantial. Implications and future research directions are outlined. Policy Implications: The findings suggest that lawmakers should more actively consider policies grounded in rehabilitation, and, perhaps, be slower to advocate for punitive reforms in response to public concern over high-profile juvenile crimes. Additionally, our willingness to pay findings offer encouragement to lawmakers who are uncomfortable with the recent trend toward punitive juvenile justice policies and would like to initiate more moderate reforms. Such lawmakers may be reassured that the public response to such initiatives will not be hostile. Just as importantly, reforms that emphasize leniency and rehabilitation can be justified economically as welfare-enhancing expenditures of public funds. The evidence that the public values rehabilitation more than increased incarceration should be important information to cost-conscious legisla