Commonsense justice and inclusion within the moral community - When do people receive procedural protections from other?

Recent survey research makes clear that the American public favors severe punishments for those who commit crimes, An example of the results of this public feeling is the recently enacted "three strikes" initiative in California, This article focuses on a 2nd, less widely noted, manifestation of public punitiveness: the willingness to abandon procedural protections when dealing with potential rule breakers, In the past, this issue has been studied in the context of political tolerance for outgroups (e.g., communists, etc.), This analysis examines the results of a recent survey and several experiments examining the factors that underlie the willingness to exclude potential rule breakers from procedural protections. In addition to the influence of threats to people and property on exclusion, this article provides evidence to suggest that people are concerned about the symbolic and social meaning of deviance, The psychological model of commonsense justice that this article posits emphasizes the importance of people's concerns about the implications of deviance for the moral order.