Is government escaping blame? the effect of contracting and victim attributes in a prisoner transportation experiment

Zachary Mohr, Jared McDonald, Jaclyn Piatak and Suzanne Leland

Public Management Review, 2024, vol. 26, issue 11, 3082-3103

Abstract: By comparing respondent’s perceptions of blame for the death of a prisoner and a non-prisoner, we explore whether the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law is possible. We examine reactions to a vignette experiment that varies whether a prison transport was conducted by a contractor or directly provided by the government, and whether the victim was another prisoner or a bystander. Drawing on literature regarding blame avoidance, citizens blame government less for contracted service failures. In contrast to social identity theory expectations, respondents place greater blame to the government and guards when the victim is a prisoner.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14719037.2023.2200436 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rpxmxx:v:26:y:2024:i:11:p:3082-3103

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rpxm20

DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2023.2200436

Access Statistics for this article

Public Management Review is currently edited by Stephen P. Osborne

More articles in Public Management Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().