Public Tolerance for Community-Based Sanctions

Based on a factorial design survey of 237 Hamilton County (Cincinnati), Ohio, residents, we assessed not only whether respondents preferred, but also “tolerated” or viewed as acceptable, community-based sanctions. Rating vignettes in which the offender engaged in either burglary or robbery, a slight majority of the respondents favored a sentence involving incarceration. Even so, a sizable minority of the sample preferred to sanction offenders in the community, and tolerance for such a sanction was widespread. There was little support, however, for sanctions that did not involve the close supervision of the offender. We suggest that community-based sanctions will be embraced by the public only to the extent that a persuasive case can be made that the sanction punishes, restrains, and changes offenders—in short, that it “works.”