Citation

Sommer R, Sommer BA, Heidmets M. Crim. Justice Behav. 1991; 18(4): 480-490.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0093854891018004008

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

To test Blackstone's assertion that it is better that 10 guilty escape than 1 innocent person suffer, students in California (USA) and Estonia (part of the USSR at the time of the study) were questioned as to the number of guilty offenders whom they would allow to escape unpunished in order to keep one innocent person from going to jail. In both nations, the number of guilty to be released varied positively with sentence length for the innocent person. The rank order for seriousness of crimes appears to be different in the United States than in the Soviet Union. American law students showed more desire than American liberal arts students to protect the innocent.

Language: en