Out of sight out of mind: Psychological distance and opinion about the age of penal majority.

The growth of urban violence in Brazil, as in other countries, has led citizens to demand more severe and punitive measures to solve the problem of juvenile crime. One motion submitted to the Brazilian parliament, for instance, proposes to reduce the age of penal majority (APM) from 18 to 16 years. Our hypothesis is that popular opinions about this proposal are largely constrained by construal levels and psychological distance. Accordingly, we expect that the knowledge and proximity to the circumstances associated with juvenile transgression will influence opinions about the proposal. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated how opinion against or for the proposal can be explained by psychological distance and moral development theory. We studied two samples, composed of people who do not have a deep experience with the subject (passersby in a public square (N = 77) and workers from a juvenile justice court (N = 157). After collecting socio-demographic information from the subjects and their answer to moral dilemmas, the data was subjected to a multivariate analysis by multimodal logistic regression for socio-demographic characteristics, Kohlberg moral stages, and opinion on the reduction of APM (agree, indifferent, and disagree) as dependent variables. Our findings suggest that 1) opinion about the APM depends on psychological distance and 2) socioeconomic variables may influence the average construal level of adolescent transgressors in the public's perspective.

Identidad étnica y conductas sociales en adolescentes indígenas mapuche sancionados por la Ley de Responsabilidad Penal Adolescente en regiones del sur de Chile / Ethnic Identity and Social Behaviors in Indigenous Juvenile Offenders Sentenced by the Law in the South of Chile

RESUMEN Se analiza la relación entre identidad étnica y conductas sociales en 60 adolescentes indígenas infractores de ley autoidentificados como mapuche. La identidad étnica se obtiene con la Escala IEM; conductas sociales, con CACSA; delitos autorreportados, con EDA y judicializados, con Ficha FER-R. El objetivo fue evaluar la asociación entre grado de desarrollo de identidad étnica con presencia de conductas antisociales y prosociales. Los resultados indican que a mayor desarrollo de identidad étnica menor presencia de conductas antisociales, no observándose relación entre identidad étnica y conductas prosociales. Se discute la relevancia de la identidad étnica como factor protector específico en adolescentes infractores mapuche y en adolescentes de otros pueblos indígenas en general, convirtiéndose en posible foco de intervención para desestimar estas conductas.

ABSTRACT We examined the relationship between ethnic identity and social behaviors in 60 indigenous juvenile offenders self-identified as mapuche. Ethnic identity is obtained with IEM scale, social behaviors with CACSA, self-reported and sentenced offenses with EDA and FER-R. The objective was to evaluate the association between the degree of ethnic identity development with presence of antisocial and prosocial behavior. The results indicate that ethnic identity development was related to lesser presence of antisocial behaviors, though no relationship between ethnic identity and prosocial behaviors. The possible relevance of ethnic identity as a protective factor in mapuche youth offenders in specific and in general to adolescents of other indigenous people, becoming a possible focus of intervention to dismiss these behaviors is discussed.