Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol 31(3), Aug 2025, 299-306; doi:10.1037/pac0000795
To better understand barriers to prison reform, we examined the extent to which perceivers believed that prisoners deserved access to basic rights such as health care, safety, and food and to self-determination rights such as the ability to make choices, maintain relationships, or practice skills. Participants (N = 243) recruited via CloudResearch were randomly assigned to read one of four scenarios about a person who either contemplated, committed, was imprisoned for, or had completed a prison sentence for a crime. We found that incarcerated persons and those who had not served time were seen as less deserving of rights than a person who was released from prison. Rights determinations were also predicted by moral character judgments, dehumanization, and moral disengagement. The data point to a belief that incarceration serves to improve one’s moral character and humanize prisoners, which increases their eligibility for basic and psychological rights. Moral disengagement moderated the relationship between time in prison and deservingness of rights, indicating that moral disengagement increases one’s ability to deny other’s rights. Discussion centers on the implications of this research for prison reform. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)