Psychological Science ›› 2016, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (2): 424-429.

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Experimental Researches of the influence on repeat offenses:Vengeance, Punishment, Silence or Forgiveness?

Jie Li   

  • Received:2015-05-24 Revised:2015-10-20 Online:2016-03-20 Published:2016-03-20
  • Contact: Jie Li

影响再次侵犯的实验研究:报复、惩罚、沉默、还是宽恕?

李婕   

  1. 中国政法大学
  • 通讯作者: 李婕

Abstract: Does different coping strategies which are revenge, punishment, silence and forgiveness influence repeat offenses? This study contains 2 experiments. Experiment 1 chose 64 graduate students to participate in prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG). They were told that they would be playing an interaction game with other 5 players (one-to-one) and that cash payouts would be made based on the outcome. In fact, every participant received a message that they were chosen to be the assistant of the experimenter, so they need to choose “compete” in Round 1 of the game. The other 5 players (pre-arranged) gave different feedbacks to participants, which were revenge, punishment, silence and forgiveness. The participants need to make choice how possible they would “complete” in the next round. And in the “power part” of the game, they need to choose one player to punish, whether to take 10 yuan from the player to himself or take 20 yuan to public. The results show that victims’ coping strategies have a significant influence on repeat offenses ( F(3, 186)=19.17, p< .01,η2= .24), while possibility of retaliation is not significant( F(1, 62)=1.23, p= .27> .05), and the interaction of the two variable is not significant either ( F(3, 186)=1.27, p= .29> .05). Offenders are more likely to attack victims for the second time that claimed to revenge or punish rather than silent or forgiven ones. Experiment 2 chose 227 subjects in Gansu and Shanxi province from 16 to 80 years old. Subjects were asked to imagine they are the character in the story, who built up library for poor children with his /her friends, but won Outstanding Citizen Prize all by himself, and latter on wrote a letter of apology to his friends. The friends have different attitudes to him/her, one said he would revenge, one said he would go to the leader to talk about this, one kept silent, and one said he would receive the apology and forgive you. Now there is an opportunity to be Outstanding Citizen, because of quota limit, you need to make decisions that one of your 4 friends cannot be the Outstanding Citizen. The study examines the influence of age and coping strategies to repentance motivation and repeat offenses. The results show that the impact of coping strategies for repentance motivation is significant ( F(3, 221)=1.21, p< .01,η2= .62), and tolerance policy is the highest, age for repentance motivation is not significant ( F(3, 223)=2.229, p= .086> .05), while the interaction is significant (F(9, 669)=2.56, p< .01,η2= .03); Strategies for repeat offenses is significant ( F(3, 221)=3.33,p< .01,η2= .04), age for repeat offenses is significant ( F(3, 223)=10.66,p< .01,η2= .13), and the interaction is also significant ( F(9, 669)=7.85, p< .01,η2= .10). Offenders from 16-20 are more likely to attack victims who use revenge, punish strategies, rather than silent, forgive ones; offenders from 21-35 do not have choice preference; while offenders over 36 prefer to attack those victims who use silent , forgive and punish strategies rather than avengers. In addition, all these four types of strategies have effect on the reduction of repeat offences, while there is a certain risk. From a legal perspective, retaliation strategy risks outweigh the benefits, and the current relatively safe strategy is mainly based on retribution justice, meanwhile, restorative justice can attempt to apply in the youth group.

Key words: vengeance, punishment, forgiveness, repentance motivation, repeat offenses, retributive justice, restorative justice

摘要: 本研究从侵犯者角度出发,探讨受害者不同应对策略是否会影响侵犯者的再次侵犯。研究一采用囚徒困境范式,考察62名大学生应对策略和报复机会对再次侵犯的影响。研究二采用故事情境法,考察227名被试应对策略、年龄对悔改动机和再次侵犯的影响。结果发现,应对策略、年龄的主效应显著,二者交互作用显著,被试年龄越大对报复者侵犯的可能性越低,对沉默者和宽恕者侵犯可能性越高。启示我国目前仍应以报应性司法模式为主,可在青少年群体尝试恢复性司法。

关键词: 报复, 惩罚, 宽恕, 悔改动机, 再次侵犯, 报应性司法, 恢复性司法