Abstract
This study aims to clarify (1)whether the public and a victim of a crime might make different assessments, and (2)whether apologies of perpetrators might reduce such discrep-ancies. One of six scenarios was assigned to each subject, and the public and the victim, and levels of apology were manipulated. Each subject was required to rate the responsibility of the perpetrator. Analysis of variance revealed the effects of interaction between the public and a victim, and the apology, and indicated that an apology by the perpetrator reduced the discrepancy of the assessment between the public and a victim. Path analysis on the process of responsibility assessment suggested that apologies by the perpetrator improved the victim's assessment of "negligence of perpetrator" and "anger to perpetrator".
