The Effect of Offenders’ Education Level on Sentencing Time

Abstract

This experiment assessed the effect of three different offender education levels (no high school degree, high school degree, and college degree) on the amount of time they are sentenced for a crime. The study’s hypothesis was that offenders with a lower education level would receive a longer sentencing time than offenders with a higher education level. Ninety-six participants were randomly assigned to three groups: one group read four vignettes about offenders with no high school degree, one group read four vignettes about offenders with a high school degree, and the final group read four vignettes about offenders with a college degree. All participants responded on a number line ranging from five to twenty regarding the number of years they believed each offender should be sentenced. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) compared average sentence lengths by education level and found no statistically significant difference. An independent-samples t-test compared average sentence lengths for offenders without a college degree versus offenders with a college degree and found a statistically significant difference in that offenders with a college education were sentenced to about a year longer than offenders without a college level education.