Attitude Towards Criminal Behaviour: A Qualitative Analysis On Young Adults Focusing On Sympathy, Forgiveness, Justice And Punishment
- IJLLR Journal
- Feb 14
- 1 min read
Ashwathy AN, Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru
Serena Ajith, Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru
ABSTRACT
Behaviour such as sympathy, empathy, and forgiveness are generally shown mostly towards people we generally term ‘normal'. This research aims to explore how people perceive and behave when aspects of sympathy, empathy, forgiveness, justice and punishment are concerning criminals. Behaviour and feelings towards criminals can be loosely concluded to be ‘hostile’. Therefore this research tries to see the application of positive emotions towards criminals. The research paper makes use of in depth interviews to get a significant idea about the nature of attitude of young adults towards criminal behaviour. The data obtained from the interviews were thematically analysed and colour coded to obtain 8 broad themes and 21 sub themes that explain the behaviour towards criminal behaviour. The research therefore discovers that certain themes such as type of crime and disposition have a homogenous trend with respect to attitudes toward criminal behaviour, however individuals have very conflicting views with regard to certain other themes such as individual attitude towards punishment.
Keywords: Forgiveness, sympathy, empathy, justice, punishment, criminals.
