Date of Award
9-9-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Criminal Justice
First Advisor
Robert Lytle
Abstract
Public opinion on punitiveness is an important topic of study because it can influence political elites’ decision making when developing legislation. This study focused on the role gender ideology and anti-transgender attitudes on punitiveness while controlling for religious and political conservatism. The 2020 American National Election Study (ANES) was used to examine the association between conservatism, traditional gender roles, and anti-transgender attitudes on their influence of punitiveness. Three ordinal logistic regressions were run for each type of punitiveness (i.e., death penalty support, crime spending, and felon disenfranchisement). Results indicated that religious conservatives had lesser odds for supporting the death penalty but greater odds in support for crime spending. Political conservatism, traditional gender roles, and anti-transgender attitudes each resulted in greater odds of supporting any of the three forms of punitiveness. These findings help understand what other opinions may have an influence on punitiveness outside of the heavily studied topics of political and religious conservatism.
Recommended Citation
Trantham, Haley Brooke, "Punitiveness in the Modern Era: Gender Roles & Anti-Transgender Attitudes" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 1295.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/1295
