Trauma Mitigating in Emerging Adult Sentencing? An Experimental Examination of the Influence of Homicide Defendants' Age and Biopsychosocial Factors on the Public's Punitiveness

The U.S. maintains some of the most punitive sentencing policies, but public opinion plays a role in justice policy. Although the public generally supports rehabilitation and less punitive sentencing for juveniles, less is known about public attitudes toward sentencing emerging adults (18-to-25-year-olds)-a population disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. This paper analyzes data from an experimental survey with factorial vignettes administered to college students to examine emerging adult age and biopsychosocial factors on sentencing punitiveness. Chi-squared and one-way ANOVAs were employed to evaluate group differences and multinomial logistic regression to examine the effects of the randomized factors on the sentence outcomes. The biological and psychological trauma experienced by the defendant convicted of homicide in this study were mitigating factors in emerging adult sentence punitiveness. The results provide insight into potential jurors' and future criminal justice professionals' consideration of biopsychosocial information in sentencing directly impacting justice-involved emerging adults.