In the aftermath of crimes or corporate scandals, there public often demands stronger punishment: courts are claimed to be too soft on crime, and sanctions are seen as too low to effectively deter would-be offenders. Politicans, too, love punishment, as recent campaigns to increase sanctions or to introduce harsher prison regimes show. But criminological research shows that there is no conclusive evidence that punishment actually deters (especially serious) crimes. Moreover, the evidence that the likelihood of punishment deters is far stronger than that on severity.

This is but one setting in which social scientific research can inform legal practice and policy. But can communicating such findings sway the intuitions and preferences of both legal practitioners and the general public? This project aims to answer this question. It examines how these stakeholders think about social science and how they respond when exposed to its findings. In this way, the project aims to contribute to a better cross-fertilization between social science and legal practice - and to identify ways in which science may be communicated more effectively to sway both policy and the general public. 

This project is supported by an ERC Consolidator Grant.