An Eye for an Eye: How Revenge is Viewed as a Motive

Authors

Elizabeth Perkins
Talon Stallings

Files

Description

Motives behind crimes play a large role in sentencing. A motive being defined as “the reason for doing something.” (Oxford Dictionary, 2023) In criminal cases, this translates to the reason for committing a crime. It’s well known that different criminal motives elicit different reactions from members of the public. (Wolfgang, 1958) This often leads to differences in sentencing. One of the most well known motives in crime is revenge, which is the act of criminally retaliating against one who a criminal believes has wronged them. (Kivivuori, 2016) In this research study, public opinion was gauged on how revenge is viewed as a criminal motive. Using surveys of different age ranges, a representative example of US citizens gave their opinion on revenge crimes. Through this study we found that views on revenge did not vary much based upon age, race, or sex of college aged students. Views on revenge seemingly depended more upon the reason a person felt wronged and how heavily they punish the wrongdoer rather than respondent background.

Publication Date

4-16-2025

Disciplines

Higher Education | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Recommended Citation

Perkins, Elizabeth and Stallings, Talon, "An Eye for an Eye: How Revenge is Viewed as a Motive" (2025). 2025 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations. 78.
https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2025/78