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LIFESTYLE

Americans Want Prison, Fine for Bill Cosby

Disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby was found guilty last month of three counts of aggravated sexual assault and is set to be sentenced in September. Many have cited his age and declining health as potential reasons to not pursue a prison sentence, but Americans want to see him pay in both time and money for his crimes.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 18% of American Adults think justice would better be served if Cosby is only sent to prison. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say justice would be better served if he is just forced to pay a substantial monetary penalty instead, but a plurality (41%) feels he should be forced to do both. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure what would make a better punishment for the longtime entertainer. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on May 14-15, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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