The study intends to explore if the severe public punitive attitudes are related the low public satisfaction on safety and how the perceived media coverage of homicide crime news changes this relationship. By analyzing the secondary data “2014 Survey research on Attitudes toward Death Penalty and Related Values in Taiwan” conducted by the Academia Sinica, the study finds that, when media effect was not considered, the public satisfaction on community safety and punitiveness were negatively but insignificantly correlated; secondly, when considering the moderator effect of perceived homicide crime news coverage, the main effects of homicide crime news coverage and public satisfaction on community safety were both independently positive correlated with puninitiveness. The results also indicate group 1 (perceived low homicide crime news coverage and low public satisfaction on community safety) shared the similar punitive attitudes with group 4 (perceived high homicide crime news coverage and high satisfaction on community safety). On the other hand, group 2 (perceived low homicide crime news coverage and high satisfaction on community safety) shared the similar lenient punishment attitudes with group 3 (perceived high homicide crime news coverage and low satisfaction on community safety). The study concludes that the perceived homicide crime news coverage had a significantly mediate effect on the relationship between public satisfaction on community safety and their punitive attitudes.

資料來源:http://handle.ncl.edu.tw/11296/ndltd/70649680404372467307