The DOI matches its Crossref record; 51 of the 51 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The deterrent effect of the perceived certainty and severity of punishment: A review of the evidence and issues
Abstract
This paper critically examines the role of the perceived certainty and severity of punishment in deterring criminal/deviant behavior. A thorough review of the perceptual deterrence literature from 1972–1986 is provided which indicates that cross-sectional correlations between perceptions of sanction threats and self-reported criminal/deviant behavior are moderately negative for diverse offenses, consistent with the deterrence doctrine. It is noted that rather than expressing the deterrent effect, these correlations probably indicate the effect of prior behavior on currently held perceptions—the experiential effect. In addition, since in many instances the reported correlations express simple bivariate relationships, the association may be spurious rather than causal. When researchers employing panel designs have estimated the deterrent relationship with variables in their correct temporal ordering and with more fully specified causal models, the moderate inverse effect for both perceived certainty and severity disappears. Although this would argue strongly for the continued utilization of longitudinal data and fully developed models of deterrence/social control, recent commentaries have raised questions about this line of perceptual deterrence research. These arguments are assessed and an agenda for future deterrence research suggested.
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Cites
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Social Learning and Deviant Behavior: A Specific Test of a General Theory
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Social Learning and Deviant Behavior: A Specific Test of a General Theory
Akers, R. L., Krohn, M. D., Lanza-Kaduce, L., & Radosevich, M. (1979) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2094592 · Cited by 1,176
Crime, Punishment, and Deterrence
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Cited by
THE EMPIRICAL STATUS OF GOTTFREDSON AND HIRSCHI'S GENERAL THEORY OF CRIME: A META‐ANALYSIS
PRATT, T. C., & CULLEN, F. T. (2000) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2000.tb00911.x · Cited by 2,045
Tyler, T. R. (2004) · The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · doi:10.1177/0002716203262627 · Cited by 1,282
Assessing Macro-Level Predictors and Theories of Crime: A Meta-Analysis
Pratt, T. C., & Cullen, F. T. (2005) · Crime and Justice · doi:10.1086/655357 · Cited by 995
A Reconceptualization of General and Specific Deterrence
STAFFORD, M. C., & WARR, M. (1993) · Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency · doi:10.1177/0022427893030002001 · Cited by 615
BRAGA, A. A., KENNEDY, D. M., WARING, E. J., & PIEHL, A. M. (2001) · Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency · doi:10.1177/0022427801038003001 · Cited by 589
Metadata
- Authors
- Paternoster, R.
- Venue
- Justice Quarterly
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 1987-06-01
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 173-217
- ISSN
- 0741-8825 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-9109
- OpenAlex
- W2037062993
- Cited by
- 619
- References
- 51
- FWCI
- 24.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Paternoster, R. (1987). The deterrent effect of the perceived certainty and severity of punishment: A review of the evidence and issues. Justice Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418828700089271
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
