4198 2025 2025 eng 23 article SAGE Publications 1 -- 2025-08-11 -- This article presents the primary results of a longitudinal study on attitudes toward punishment, among social work students in Germany. This is particularly relevant because social workers, especially in the field of criminal justice, are part of the state control bodies required to set boundaries and decide for or against certain sanctions. The results show that punitive attitudes are not uncommon among first-year social work students but decrease during the course of their study, especially in students majoring in the field of criminal justice. Simultaneously, “selective punitiveness” was evident. Probation Journal 10.1177/02645505251364173 1741-3079 Begutachtet/Reviewed publish false false Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International Christian Ghanem Michael Hanslmaier Tilman Lutz Christine Graebsch eng uncontrolled Punitiveness eng uncontrolled perceptions about crime and punishment eng uncontrolled social work students eng uncontrolled Germany Fakultät Sozialwissenschaften Soziale & ökonomische Transformation