Influence of religiosity and studying law on college students’ punitive attitudes in China

Published date01 January 2022
DOI10.1177/1748895820951243
AuthorYandong Gao,Doris C Chu,Michael A Cretacci
Date01 January 2022
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820951243
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2022, Vol. 22(1) 171 –190
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895820951243
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Influence of religiosity and
studying law on college
students’ punitive attitudes
in China
Doris C Chu
National Chung Cheng University
Michael A Cretacci
The State University of New York – Buffalo State, USA; Jianghan University, China
Yandong Gao
Zhejiang University, China
Abstract
A number of studies in the United States examine the impact of religiosity on attitudes towards
various types of criminal sanctioning. Research seems to indicate that more conservative
denominations and faiths have a more punitive preference for criminal sanctions. Previous studies
have also examined these attitudes between criminal justice and non-criminal justice students.
While this area of inquiry has drawn attention in the United States, only scant attention has
been paid to this phenomenon in other countries. To the best of our knowledge, no study has
addressed this issue in China and our research seeks to serve as a foundation for examining this
topic in that country. Using data collected from students attending universities in China, we
examine the relationship between respondents’ religiosity and their punitive attitudes. We also
compare the punitive attitudes between law and non-law majors. Findings indicate that students
with higher levels of religious behaviour were less likely to support the death penalty. In addition,
law majors were found to be less likely to endorse severe sentences. Suggestions for future
research are discussed.
Keywords
Attitudes towards sanctions, China, death penalty, punishment, rehabilitation, religiosity
Corresponding author:
Doris C Chu, Department of Criminology, National Chung Cheng University, 168 University Rd. Sec. 1,
Minhsiung, Chia Yi County 62102, Taiwan.
Email: doriscfchu@gmail.com
951243CRJ0010.1177/1748895820951243Criminology & Criminal JusticeChu et al.
research-article2020
Article
172 Criminology & Criminal Justice 22(1)
Introduction
Understanding public attitudes towards punishment is important because public opinion
may inform policies on crime and crime control (Flanagan and Longmire, 1996).
Previous studies have discussed the factors that determine punitive public attitudes and
whether and how different dimensions of religion affect those attitudes. In the United
States, this particular area of inquiry has drawn research scrutiny, but only scant attention
has been paid to it in other countries (Hanslmaier and Baier, 2016; Kutateladze and
Crossman, 2009). To bridge this burgeoning gap, this study examines how, in China,
religiosity plays a role in shaping college students’ attitudes towards punishment.
Recent scholarship has defined religiosity broadly as a resource that helps individuals
cope with various stressors. As a result, religiosity as a term can come to mean a whole
litany of activities and expressions that help people cope with life by fostering a connec-
tion with the divine. In particular, prayer, interacting with a congregation, religious
belief, membership in religious communities and many other religious behaviours and
attitudes are considered measures of religiosity (Zwingmann et al., 2011). While we
accept the overall definition of the term, specifying such a broad measure is beyond the
scope of this study. As a result, we take two aspects of religiosity (religious behaviour
and importance of religion) and seek to lay the groundwork for their potential impact on
punishment attitudes among Chinese university students. More specifically, we utilize
several items of religious service attendance, religious group participation, private prayer
and individual religious importance to operationalize religiosity.
This study makes several important contributions to the literature regarding the under-
standing of attitudes towards criminal sanctions. First, since we know of no other research
that has addressed this issue using a sample collected in China, the results that we present
here can be contrasted with those of a number of studies that have examined the impact
of religiosity on attitudes towards various types of punishment in Western countries
(Bader and et al, 2010; Unnever et al., 2010). Similarly, this study is also the first of its
kind in addressing the role of religiosity in shaping Chinese college students’ attitudes
towards criminal punishment. Third, the present study examines whether there are vari-
ations in attitudes towards criminal sanctions between law and non-law majors. This
approach is also important since some previous scholarship has found that students of
criminal justice in the United States were more apt to support harsher punishments
(Mackey and Courtright, 2000; Shelley et al., 2011), while other investigations found
criminal justice majors held less punitive attitudes (Tsoudis, 2000). The more specific
contribution in this area seeks to determine if that finding is replicable among law stu-
dents in China. Finally, while attitudes towards criminal punishment have received scru-
tiny in some Western countries, very little scholarly attention has been paid to this topic
in China. As a result, this research serves as a vehicle to begin examination of these
matters and to address these gaps in the literature.
Literature review
Religiosity and attitudes towards punishment
A considerable body of scholarship has emerged which explores the relationship between
different dimensions of religion and punitive attitudes in the United States. Some

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