Time is supposed to heal all wounds and to help people forgive and let go of past transgressions. But what if that’s not always the case? What if, instead of leading to forgiveness, the passage of more time before a crime is punished leads judges to levy more severe penalties?
We uncovered a consistent pattern: the more time that passed before the judgment of a crime, the longer the sentence a transgressor received. This occurred regardless of whether we computed delays from the time span between the crime and the arrest or sentencing or between the arrest and the sentencing. We also controlled for the number of charges and the severity of crimes committed, which ruled out alternative explanations.
We also tried to gauge what might influence these punishment decisions. For instance, we asked participants how fairly or unfairly the transgressor was treated, including how much they felt the perpetrator had benefited from delays. We also asked how outraged they were by what transpired because some people may have stronger emotional reactions than others.
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