Is it risky to believe in a just world? Exploring the links of the belief in a just world and crime related concepts
Abstract
The paper aims at exploring the relevance of the belief in a just world (BJW) in criminology. BJW is a personal belief that the society treats one in a fair manner: one gets what he or she deserves and any unfairness is sooner or later punished.
BJW is thought to have beneficial as well as adverse psychosocial impacts: the theoretical and empirical studies suggest that it may be linked to one's felt obligation to behave fairly and coping with threatening events like crime. However, BJW may also lead to justification of perceived unfairness and blaming the victims of crime, perhaps even in the case of one's own victimization.
We examined several criminological concepts (victimity, compliance, punitivity, feelings of safety, perceived risk of sanctions, criminal thinking) in relation to BJW. We hypothesized somewhat twofold connection of BJW and crime related attitudes (high punitivity and victimity while also strong trust in the police among people strongly believing in a just world).
The hypotheses were tested on a dataset obtained in 2015 in a self-report survey of crime related attitudes of Czech citizens (quota sampling, N = 926), using a 6-item scale of BJW (Dalbert, Montada, Schmitt: General Belief in a Just World, 1987). The internal consistency of the scale (0,84) suggests a compact and reliable measurement tool.
The preliminary findings indicate rather an overall "protective" role of BJW in relation to crime: people with stronger BJW trust the police more, report lower harm and victimity in the past 5 years, feel safer and believe that the probability of being punished for one's misdemeanour is high. The results are discussed within the risk and protective factor perspective in criminology.