ABSTRACT
When the public think about crime, their thoughts frequently turn to punishment. Indeed, for many people, the criminal justice process can be reduced to an equation in which criminal behavior is matched by judicial punishment. Deterrence, for example, may attract support from the public simply because it is more familiar to people than a sentencing goal such as incapacitation. General deterrence has a great deal of intuitive appeal; most people see the principle of deterrence at work in everyday life, and extrapolate to criminal behavior. It is possible that people believe they are sentencing according to one principle and yet in fact are guided by another. This certainly seems to be the case for some judges. While differing in emphasis from the responses of actual judges, public reactions are nevertheless just as complex. Offender characteristics also affect public preferences tor different sentencing purposes. This was demonstrated in some research conducted in Ohio.
