Recent research published in the journal Political Behavior shows that Americans largely prioritize the severity of a violent act over the perpetrator’s political identity when determining punishment. While partisanship does influence how individuals judge political violence, the study suggests that the specific nature of the crime plays a much larger role in public opinion. Political violence has become a prominent concern in the United States following high-profile events such as the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and the January 6 Capitol attack. Social scientists have debated whether the American public is becoming more tolerant of violence as a means to achieve political goals. Previous scholarship has often focused on whether individuals support violence in the abstract or in relation to specific, highly charged events. The authors of the current study sought to understand how citizens apply standards of accountability when faced with concrete scenarios. They aimed to determine if Americans are willing to punish individuals from their own political group who engage in violence. “We saw a good deal of unresolved scholarly debate on …