Cultural and Sexual Differences on the Judgment of Criminal Offenses: A Replication Study of the Measurement of Delinquency
Abstract
In 1964, Sellin and Wolfgang1 proposed a new method of measuring criminality by using a differential weighting ot the seriousness of criminal offenses. They believe that there is a quantitative aspect of criminality which is measurable by ratings, and that the scores of ratings represent an underlying value judgment of a community. This rating of the seriousness of criminal offenses, they claim, makes possible meaningful quantitive comparisons of the crime rates in different times and places. By asking raters, including college students, policemen and judges in Philadelphia, to judge the seriousness of some criminal offenses, Sellin and Wolfgang were able to construct a seriousness scale which they believe reflects fairly universal attitudes toward criminal acts, especially in the Western cultures.
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Hsu (1973) found that female students in Taiwan in 1968 rated rape as more serious, while males rated homicide as more serious.
“Hsu (1973) found that female students in Taiwan in 1968 rated rape as more serious, while the males rated homicide as more serious.”
From Rape or Homicide: Which Is Worse? (2024) · cites this paper as Hsu (1973)
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Gove, W. R., Hughes, M., & Geerken, M. R. (1985) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00350.x · Cited by 364 · see citing works
Measuring crime seriousness perceptions
Stylianou, S. (2003) · Journal of Criminal Justice · doi:10.1016/s0047-2352(02)00198-8 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Choy, O., Raine, A., & Hamilton, R. H. (2018) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3317-17.2018 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
“The null mediation effect observed for physical assault suggests that moral 313 judgment plays a greater role on intentions to commit sexual assault, which is consistent with 314 empirical evidence that sexual offenses such as rape are rated as more morally wrongful than 315 physical violence (Akman et al., 1968; Hsu,…”
BackgroundThe Seriousness of Crime Cross‐Culturally:
Evans, S. S., & Scott, J. E. (1984) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1984.tb00287.x · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Public Consensus on Crime Seriousness Normative Structure or Methodological Artifact?
Miethe, T. D. (1982) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1982.tb00475.x · Cited by 74 · see citing works
The seriousness of crime: A study of popular morality
Blum‐West, S. R. (1985) · Deviant Behavior · doi:10.1080/01639625.1985.9967661 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Kwan, Y. K., Chiu, L. L., Ip, W. C., & Kwan, P. (2002) · Journal of Criminal Justice · doi:10.1016/s0047-2352(02)00194-0 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Offense seriousness scaling: An alternative to scenario methods
Lynch, J. P., & Danner, M. J. E. (1993) · Journal of Quantitative Criminology · doi:10.1007/bf01064464 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
CITIZEN CRIME STEREOTYPES—NORMATIVE CONSENSUS REVISITED
Hansel, M. (1987) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1987.tb00806.x · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Additivity and Interactions in Offense Seriousness Scales
Gottfredson, S. D., Young, K. L., & Laufer, W. S. (1980) · Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency · doi:10.1177/002242788001700103 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
“Nonetheless, since some displacement of item means was apparent, data were rescaled following the successive intervals procedure as outlined by Diederich, Messick, and Tucker (1957) to investigate the extent of the problem.”
MethodEvaluating The Seriousness of Police Misconduct
Ivković, S. K. (2004) · International Criminal Justice Review · doi:10.1177/105756770401400102 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Control Attitudes toward Drug Use as a Function of Paternalistic and Moralistic Principles
Stylianou, S. (2002) · Journal of Drug Issues · doi:10.1177/002204260203200106 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Crime seriousness and punitive severity: An assessment of social attitudes
Durham, A. M. (1988) · Justice Quarterly · doi:10.1080/07418828800089651 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Effects of Item Order on the Perceived Seriousness of Crime: A Reexamination
Evans, S. S., & Scott, J. E. (1984) · Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency · doi:10.1177/0022427884021002004 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Fissel, E. R., & Lee, J. R. (2023) · Journal of Criminology · doi:10.1177/26338076231174639 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Child Maltreatment Seriousness and Juvenile Delinquency
Doerner, W. G. (1987) · Youth & Society · doi:10.1177/0044118x87019002006 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
A Minimum Requirement for Police Corruption
Klockars, C. B., Haberfeld, M. R., Ivković, S. K., et al. (2002) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-4883-3_12 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Vogel, B. L., & Meeker, J. W. (2001) · Justice Quarterly · doi:10.1080/07418820100094911 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Attitudes toward crime(s) and their relations to gender, age, and personal values
Borg, I., & Hermann, D. (2023) · Current Research in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.crbeha.2023.100111 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
L'Armand, K., Pepitone, A., & Shanmugam, T. E. (1981) · Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology · doi:10.1177/0022022181123003 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
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Vogel, B. L. (1998) · Journal of Criminal Justice · doi:10.1016/s0047-2352(97)00083-4 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Methodological Problems in International Criminal Justice Research
Ali, B. (1986) · International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice · doi:10.1080/01924036.1986.9688841 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Lauchs, L., Link, E., & Lösel, F. A. (2020) · Monatsschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform · doi:10.1515/mks-2020-2060 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“So stellte Hsu (1973) fest, dass Kultur und Geschlecht bedeutsame Faktoren sind, die die Einschätzung der Schwere von Delikten beeinflussen.”
BackgroundPolice use of excessive force: Does the race of the suspect influence citizens' perceptions?
Rome, D. M., Son, I. S., & Davis, M. S. (1995) · Social Justice Research · doi:10.1007/bf02334825 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
A Multidimensional Approach to the Problem of Crime Seriousness
Fishman, G., Kraus, V., & Cohen, B.-Z. (1986) · International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice · doi:10.1080/01924036.1986.9688842 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Rape or Homicide: Which Is Worse?
Felson, R. B., & Silver, E. (2024) · Archives of Sexual Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10508-023-02799-w · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“Hsu (1973) found that female students in Taiwan in 1968 rated rape as more serious, while the males rated homicide as more serious.”
Lee, H., Pickett, J. T., Graham, A., Cullen, F. T., Jonson, C. L., Haner, M., & Sloan, M. M. (2024) · Journal of Experimental Criminology · doi:10.1007/s11292-024-09610-3 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“…(> .70) among individuals on the rank ordering of offense seriousness and preferred sanctions within and between samples from different populations (Hamilton & Rytina, 1980; Hsu, 1973; Miethe, 1982; Newman, 1976; O’Connell & Whelan, 1996; Rossi & Berk, 1997; see also Cullen et al., 1985).”
Citizen Judgments Of Appropriate Punishment: An Exploratory Inquiry
Durham, A. M. (1986) · Criminal Justice Policy Review · doi:10.1177/088740348600100401 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“First, much of the work on crime seriousness has used student samples which were later found not to differ from other kinds in terms of their perceptions of crime severity (e.g. Sellin and Wolfgang, 1964; Akman et al., 1967; Hsu, 1973; Figlio, 1975).”
BackgroundLink, E., & Lösel, F. A. (2022) · Psychology Crime and Law · doi:10.1080/1068316x.2022.2032054 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“However, studies carried out with participants from different backgrounds showed that judgements also depended on specific cultural circumstances (Evans & Scott, 1984; Hsu, 1973).”
BackgroundThe Continuum of Criminal Offenses Instrument
Klein, R. J., Newman, I., Weis, D. M., et al. (1983) · Journal of Offender Counseling Services Rehabilitation · doi:10.1300/j264v07n01_04 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Child Maltreatment and Juvenile Delinquency in Taiwan
Doerner, W. G., & TSAI, T.-H. (1990) · International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice · doi:10.1080/01924036.1990.9688941 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Cross Cultural Perceptions of Offense Severity: The United States, India and Kuwait
Skovron, S. E., Scott, J. E., & Rao, P. (1987) · International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice · doi:10.1080/01924036.1987.9688855 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Владимирович, К. Г. (2024) · Population and Economics · doi:10.3897/popecon.8.e103894 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“This model has been expanded and refined in subsequent studies by researchers such as Adriaenssen et al. (2019), Borg et al. (2023), Eisner et al. (2017), Hsu (1973), Rossi and Berk (1997), Rossi and Henry (1980), Thomas et al. (1976), Warr et al. (1982).”
ResultKopp, P. M. (2014) · CUNY Academic Works (City University of New York)
The Rome Statute, Penalties & the Spectrum of SeverityPreprint
Kourabas, M. N. (2008) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.1114364
Sellin–Wolfgang Scale of Severity
Tracy, P. E. (2005) · Encyclopedia of Social Measurement · doi:10.1016/b0-12-369398-5/00436-9
Riley, L., & Park, C. (2024) · Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice · doi:10.1080/15377938.2024.2307062
“In Taiwan, culture was found to be a significant factor affecting value judgements (Hsu, 1973), and similarly, in India specific crimes existed, such as dowry deaths, that do not have complementary crimes in Western society (Desikachar, 1994).”
BackgroundMeasuring the public's perceptions of crime seriousness: A review and the development of a scale
Treshenkov, V. T., Turjeman, H., & Dagan, N. (2025) · Journal of Criminology · doi:10.1177/26338076251364561
“From a theoretical perspective, while many studies use several types of crimes in their scales, they do not refer to the three components of the offences (Douglas & Ogloff, 1997; Hsu, 1973; Newman, 1976; Simpson et al., 2023).”
Influential
- Authors
- Hsu, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hsu, Marlene
- Venue
- The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-)
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1973-09
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 348
- ISSN
- 0091-4169 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W578062196
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-) (publishedVersion)
- bepress Legal Repository (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
- Keywords
- delinquency measurement, cultural differences, sexual difference, public attitudes toward crime, replication study
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