Sanctioning Perpetrators of International Crimes: A Vignette Study

Limited research has been devoted to factors impacting the perceived justness of sentences for international crimes. We presented respondents with a vignette in which such a hypothetical crime was described, as well as some contextual information; in the vignette, the perpetrator received a sentence that was based on similar historical cases. In the study, the rank of the perpetrator, the apology by the perpetrator, and the location of the trial (in the country where the crime was committed or at the International Criminal Court) were manipulated. Respondents were asked whether they believed the sentence was just or whether they would hand down a different sentence. Qualitative questions were included to elucidate respondents’ choices. Our mixed methods analyses reveal how apology, over and above strong geographic differences, plays a significant and dominant role in perceived justness.