Sentencing Goals Inventory - Public Perception of Releasing Prisoners Due to Covid-19

The emergence of Covid-19 as a worldwide pandemic has caused several questions to arise in all aspects of living in the United States. One such question revolves around how to handle incarcerated individuals with arguments being made to release certain offenders to reduce the spread and mortality rate of the virus. This study examines the underlying motivations behind why people want to punish and the attributions they make to criminal activity and relates these two concepts to attitudes people have on releasing criminal offenders during the nationwide pandemic.