Crime and Punishment: Comparing Verdicts Suggested by a Sample of University Students for Certain Crimes with the Iranian Penal Code

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Abstract

Public sector awareness of people’s attitudes toward punishment for various crimes can help to increase the compatibility of laws with public opinion. Whereas this issue has attracted significant attention in a number of countries, little research has been conducted on it in Iran.This article examines the attitudes of a sample of 320 students, toward punishments for various crimes. Findings indicate the existence of a significant gap between verdicts suggested by students for a number of crimes and those given by the Iranian Penal Code. Specifically, students’ suggested verdicts are less severe and non-corporal in nature. Further analysis of the data also reveals that the gap is influenced by socio-demographic variables such as religiosity, level of development, level of urbanization, years of university education, perceived seriousness of crime, age and gender. Religiosity and perceived seriousness of crime have a positive relation with the above gap.

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