Journal ArticleDOI
Defiance, Deterrence, and Irrelevance: A Theory of the Criminal Sanction
TLDR
In this paper, a theory of "defiance" helps explain the conditions under which punishment increases crime, and suggests that crime might be reduced more by police and courts treating all citizens with fairness and respect than by increasing punishments.Abstract:
Increasing evidence shows great diversity in the effects of the criminal sanction. Legal punishment either reduces, increases, or has no effect on future crimes, depending on the type of offenders, offenses, social settings, and levels of analysis. A theory of “defiance” helps explain the conditions under which punishment increases crime. Procedural justice (fairness or legitimacy) of experienced punishment is essential for the acknowledgment of shame, which conditions deterrence; punishment perceived as unjust can lead to unacknowledged shame and defiant pride that increases future crime. Both “specific” defiance by individuals and “general” defiance by collectivities results from punishment perceived as unfair or excessive, unless deterrent effects counterbalance defiance and render the net effect of sanctions irrelevant. By implication, crime might be reduced more by police and courts treating all citizens with fairness and respect than by increasing punishments. A variety of research designs can be us...read more
Citations
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The Role of Procedural Justice and Legitimacy in Shaping Public Support for Policing
Jason Sunshine,Tom R. Tyler +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the influence of people's judgments about the procedural justice of the manner in which the police exercise their authority to three instrumental judgments: risk, performance, and distributive fairness.
Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising. Research in Brief. National Institute of Justice.
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Building on the Foundation of General Strain Theory: Specifying the Types of Strain Most Likely to Lead to Crime and Delinquency:
TL;DR: In this article, the characteristics of strainful events and conditions that influence their relationship to crime are described, and it is predicted that some types of strain will not be related to crime, including types that have dominated the research on strain theory.
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Understanding Desistance from Crime
John H. Laub,Robert J. Sampson +1 more
TL;DR: The study of desistance from crime is hampered by definitional, measurement, and theoretical incoherence as mentioned in this paper, and a unifying framework can distinguish termination of offending from the process of desistanc...
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Enhancing Police Legitimacy
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make three points: first, the police need public support and cooperation to be effective in their order-maintenance role, and they particularly benefit when they have the voluntary support of most members of the public, most of the time.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Social structure and Anomie.
TL;DR: Merton, Robert as discussed by the authors, 1968. "Social Structure and Anomie", in Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press: 185-214. Translation:
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Conscience, significant others, and rational choice: Extending the deterrence model.
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Crime as Social Control
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the struggle between law and self-help, the deterrence of crime, the processing of self help by legal officials, and the problem of predicting and explaining self help.
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Routine activities and crime prevention in the developingmetropolis
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the problem of diverting flows of likely offenders away from streams of suitable targets (such as television sets) to provide "natural surveillance" to the offender.
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Perceptual research on general deterrence: A critical review.
Kirk R. Williams,Richard Hawkins +1 more
TL;DR: This paper reviewed perceptual studies of general deterrence with a view toward expanding the scope of deterrence theory and stimulating research in new directions, and made suggestions about the kinds of data and analyses needed to test such theory more adequately.