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The meaning of arrest for wife assault
Abstract
The social meaning of wife assault has changed in recent years for both citizens and formal social control agents. Research on deterrence has been partly responsible for modifying police responses to domestic violence. Police are increasingly adopting pro-arrest policies for wife assault, but little is known about perceptions held by assaulters concerning the consequences of arrest for their life circumstances. Using national survey data from samples of both assaultive and nonassaultive men, the following questions are addressed; What costs do men perceive as most likely to occur if they are arrested for wife assault? Does the perceived likelihood of these costs contribute to their overall fear (i.e., perceived severity) of arrest? To what extent is the perceived likelihood of these costs related to involvement in wife assault? Perceived costs include both direct consequences seen to result from arrest and any indirect costs for the person. Indirect consequences include stigmatic costs (e.g., familial or personal humiliation), attachment costs (e.g., damage to interpersonal relationships) or commitment costs (e.g., jeopardized investments or foreclosed opportunities). The implications of the findings for an expanded version of the deterrence doctrine are discussed.
... Prior research has suggested that formal sanctions may result in ridicule, disapproval, gossip, and loss of respect from others in the workplace (Cochran et al., 2010). In a study on husbands' abusive behavior towards wives, Williams and Hawkins (1989) found that formal sanctions can increase informal sanctions because formal sanctions may facilitate the exposure of the husbands' abusive behavior, and other people may feel anger at and lose respect for husbands who abuse their wives (Williams and Hawkins, 1989). We argue that the effect of perceived certainty of formal sanctions on perceived certainty of informal sanctions can also be present in the context of cyberloafing. ...
... Prior research has suggested that formal sanctions may result in ridicule, disapproval, gossip, and loss of respect from others in the workplace (Cochran et al., 2010). In a study on husbands' abusive behavior towards wives, Williams and Hawkins (1989) found that formal sanctions can increase informal sanctions because formal sanctions may facilitate the exposure of the husbands' abusive behavior, and other people may feel anger at and lose respect for husbands who abuse their wives (Williams and Hawkins, 1989). We argue that the effect of perceived certainty of formal sanctions on perceived certainty of informal sanctions can also be present in the context of cyberloafing. ...
... However, the aim of most previous studies on formal and informal sanctions was to compare the effects of formal and informal sanctions in deterring a specific type of deviant behavior (Anderson et al., 1977;Silic et al., 2017;Siponen and Vance, 2010;Xu et al., 2020). Few studies have empirically examined the relationship between formal and informal sanctions (Hollinger and Clark, 1982;Williams and Hawkins, 1989;Yiu et al., 2014). Our study reveals that employees' perceived certainty of formal sanctions is positively related to their perceived certainty of informal sanctions in the context of cyberloafing. ...
This study investigated why employees’ cyberloafing behavior is affected by their coworkers’ cyberloafing behavior. By integrating social learning theory and deterrence theory, we developed a model to explain the role of employees’ perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions in understanding the effect of coworkers' cyberloafing behavior on employees’ cyberloafing behavior.
We conducted a survey that involved a two-stage data collection process (including 293 respondents) to test our developed model. Mplus 7.0 was used to analyze the data.
The results revealed that employees’ cyberloafing was positively affected by their coworkers’ cyberloafing both directly and indirectly. The indirect effect of coworkers’ cyberloafing on employees’ cyberloafing was mediated by the employees’ perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions on cyberloafing. Employees’ perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions were found to mediate the relationship both separately (each type of sanctions mediates the relationship individually) and in combination (the two types of sanctions form a serial mediation effect).
The study reveals an important mechanism—employees’ perceived certainty of formal and informal sanctions—that underlies the relationship between coworkers’ cyberloafing and employees’ cyberloafing, thus, contributing to the cyberloafing literature. It also demonstrates the importance of negative reinforcement (perceived sanctions) in the social learning process, which contributes to the literature on social learning theory because previous studies have primarily focused on the role of positive reinforcement. Lastly, the study reveals a positive relationship between employees’ perceived certainty of formal sanctions and informal sanctions, which has important implications for deterrence theory.
... The more an individual believes that an act is wrong or that important others will disapprove of the act, the less likely he or she is to engage in the act (for reviews, see Foglia, 1997;Nagin & Pogarsky, 2001;Paternoster, 1987). Moreover, the effect for legal sanctions tends to disappear once individuals take into account their moral beliefs and, to a lesser extent, their fear of social sanctions (Paternoster & Simpson, 1996;Piquero & Paternoster, 1998;Williams & Hawkins, 1989, 1992. ...
... It appears that legal sanctions are salient only to the extent that they convey information about the moral and health costs associated with using banned drugs. The finding for moral beliefs is consistent with law legitimacy theorizing (Bradley, 2003;Robinson & Darley, 1997;Tyler, 1990) and perceptual deterrence research (e.g., Williams & Hawkins, 1989, 1992. Although no prediction was made for the mediating role of health concerns, the effect of this variable may have an explanatory basis similar to that of moral beliefs. ...
... These particular athletes perceive the deterrent properties of anticipated guilt and important others' disapproval to be almost 100% certain and severe. Consistent with perceptual deterrence research (e.g., Paternoster & Simpson, 1996;Piquero & Paternoster, 1998;Williams & Hawkins, 1989, 1992, athletes who possess strong moral beliefs about performance-enhancing drugs, or who fear the social consequences of being found out, do not even consider the legal properties of a drug-use decision and are unlikely to use performance-enhancing drugs. ...
Performance-enhancing drug use by elite athletes is a modern sporting and social concern. We applied a long-overdue theoretical framework, perceptual deterrence, to predicting the banned drug-use decisions of 116 elite Australian footballers and soccer players. The strongest influence on athletes' hypothetical decisions to use drugs was their personal moral beliefs and health concerns, each of which also mediated the relationship between drug testing and athletes' decisions to use banned substances. Drug testing had little influence on athletes' imagined drug use decisions, although there are athletes for whom legal sanctions are necessary. The results have important implications for the way in which authorities fund and frame future anti-drug initiatives; particularly the relationship between drug testing and athletes' personal moral beliefs.
... 31 Strong social bonds and good marriages have been shown to reduce street crimes and IPV primarily through informal social control process. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] Social bonds refer to ''internalization of accepted norms, awareness, and sensitivity to the needs of others which promote conformity in society.'' 40(p534) Each dimension of the bonds among partners-for example, commitment and involvement-ties partners to conventional society and societal rules, thus informally controlling and preventing IPV. ...
... 40(p534) Each dimension of the bonds among partners-for example, commitment and involvement-ties partners to conventional society and societal rules, thus informally controlling and preventing IPV. 32,33,40 Research designed to increase our understanding of the association of neighborhood contextual and couple-level factors with IPV among low-income pregnant women is needed. We conceptualized that IPV occurs within an ecological framework ( Figure 1) that considers the interplay of neighborhood context, household factors (stressors, resources, and bonds among partners), and individual correlates of IPV. ...
... 25,46 Although in this study we focused on bonds between partners, processes of informal social control also occur in broader social networks of family, occupational relationships, and neighborhood collective efficacy. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]50 Additional research into the mediating and moderating processes operating within neighborhoods and households may elucidate the role of informal social control in IPV. ...
We examined individual, household, and neighborhood correlates of intimate partner violence (IPV) before and during pregnancy.
We used multilevel modeling to investigate IPV among 2887 pregnant women in 112 census tracts who sought prenatal care in 8 public clinics in Jefferson County, Alabama, from 1997 through 2001. Data were collected from the Perinatal Emphasis Research Center project, the 2000 Census, and the local Sheriff and Police Departments Uniform Crime Reports for 1997 through 2001.
Participants were predominantly young, African American, on Medicaid, and residents of low-income neighborhoods. The prevalence of past-year male partner-perpetrated physical or sexual violence was 7.4%. Neighborhood residential stability, women performing most of the housework (lack of involvement among partners), being unmarried (being in an uncommitted relationship), and alcohol use were positively associated with elevated IPV risk. Significant protective factors for IPV included older age at first vaginal intercourse and a greater sense of mastery (e.g., the perception of oneself as an effective person).
Both neighborhood contextual and individual and household compositional effects are associated with IPV among low-income pregnant women. The results imply that combined interventions to improve neighborhood conditions and strengthen families may effectively reduce IPV.
... Nonetheless, the threat of formal sanctions lies in their perceived certainty as well as severity. Research by Williams and Hawkins (1989) and Grasmick and his co-authors (Grasmick and Green, 1980; Grasmick and Bursik, 1990) found that formal sanctions for many offenses were not perceived to be highly likely. Indeed, general population estimates of sanction certainty varied considerably by offense type and over time (for instance, arrests for drunk driving and battery were perceived to be more probable than those for illegal gambling and petty theft; the perceived threat of arrest for tax evasion increased between 1980 and 1990). ...
... To the extent that managers employ a subjective utility model, corporate offending decisions appear to be more directly affected by controls (evident in our outcome expectancies variable) found in social networks (within and outside of the workplace) and less by legal ones. However, as Williams and Hawkins (1989) found in their study of wife assault, legal threats can trigger social controls that, in turn, inhibit offending intentions. Some studies have failed to replicate this interaction (see, e.g., Nagin & Paternoster, 1991), but it is possible that we find this effect because the triggering mechanism rests with the social embeddedness of our sample. ...
We combine prior research on ethical decision-making in organizations with a rational choice theory of corporate crime from criminology to develop a model of corporate offending that is tested with a sample of U.S. managers. Despite demands for increased sanctioning of corporate offenders, we find that the threat of legal action does not directly affect the likelihood of misconduct. Managers' evaluations of the ethics of the act, measured using a multidimensional ethics scale, have a significant effect, as do outcome expectancies that result from being associated with the misconduct but not facing formal sanctions. The threat of formal sanctions appears to operate indirectly, influencing ethical evaluations and outcome expectancies. Obedience to authority also affects illegal intentions, with managers reporting higher prospective offending when they are ordered to engage in misconduct by a supervisor.
... The lowest prevalence of male IPV is found in cultures with high gender equality and individualism, social disapproval of IPV, and weak honor culture (Krahé, 2021). Older estimates suggest that around 15% of American women suffer IPVannually (Kennedy et al., 1991;Williams & Hawkins, 1989). A more recent 21-country study found that in the past year, between 12% and 40% of university students experienced physical assault by a dating partner (Chan et al., 2008). ...
Domestic violence is physical, psychological, or sexual abuse between intimate partners, offspring, parents, and siblings within a family structure. Evolutionary approaches illuminate the psychological mechanisms that underpin these behaviors. Partner abuse has been explained as a male mate guarding strategy. Jealousy-motivated violence was seen as an adaptive means for reducing paternity uncertainty through controlling women’s sexual behavior. Newer research reveals that Western women, as a consequence of gender equality, have become similarly violent and controlling against intimate partners. Scholars suggest explanations for this unexpected development.
... Nagin and Paternoster (1991) failed to find support this hypothesis, but they acknowledged that questionnaire limitations and an adolescent sample provided a somewhat weak test. K. R. Williams and Hawkins (1989) reanalyzed data from a national survey of married men and demonstrated that the perceived severity of arrest for wife assault was more strongly related to social costs than to potential jail time, but they did not directly test their interaction hypothesis. ...
There is an ongoing American policy debate about the appropriate legal status for psychoactive drugs. Prohibition, decriminalization, and legalization positions are all premised on assumptions about the behavioral effects of drug laws. What is actually known and not known about these effects is reviewed. Rational-choice models of legal compliance suggest that criminalization reduces use through restricted drug availability, increased drug prices, and the deterrent effect of the risk of punishment. Research on these effects illustrates the need for a more realistic perspective that acknowledges the limitations of human rationality and the importance of moral reasoning and informal social control factors. There are at least 7 different mechanisms by which the law influences drug use, some of which are unintended and counterproductive. This framework is used to explore the potential behavioral effects of decriminalization and legalization.
... Certainty of punishment and severity of punishment are the underlying features of deterrence, and they are thought to be the most potent factors in determining whether and how an offender commits a crime (Guan and Lo 2021). Certainty and severity of punishment both serve a deterrent effect in crime commission (Piliavin et al. 1986;Williams and Hawkins 1989). However, some researchers have found that the certainty of punishment has the more potent influence of the two (DeJong 1997;Nagin and Pogarsky 2003;Pogarsky 2002), and that the severity of punishment appears to have a lower deterrent effect (Apel 2013;Pogarsky and Piquero 2003). ...
Using a framework of certainty reduction – severity mitigation, the paper examines how drug dealers in Hong Kong adopted restrictive deterrence strategies to reduce the certainty, and mitigate the severity, of punishment. It examines seven concrete techniques, including camouflage in public places, picking a safe time and position, counter-reconnaissance, choosing a less severe activity, stashing the product, passing risk, and cooperating with the police. We found that the techniques used by drug dealers correspond well to this framework, but that high-level dealers make more use of severity mitigation strategies while low-level dealers use certainty reduction strategies more. Moreover, the restrictive deterrence strategy is transferred through dual paths in which trust plays a role among dealers with a triad background.
... where B represents the benefits of offending, p the probability of capture, and C the costs of offending, including all perceived monetary and non-monetary costs associated with 5 For an overview of the evidence on the deterrent effect of police, imprisonment, and capital punishment see Nagin (2013) 6 Since then, many efforts have been made to incorporate other legal and non-legal aspects of crime, such as the feeling of shame and embarrassment as an explicit cost of crime (Williams and Hawkins (1989); Grasmick and Bursik Jr (1990); Hechter and Kanazawa (1997) and notions of human agency and decision-making skills (Cornish and Clarke (1987). offending. ...
... These official reports may, however, significantly underrepresent the problem. For example, self-report surveys consistently show annual rates of 6.4% (Kennedy, Forde, Smith, & Dutton, 1991, p. 309) to 10% (Petersen & Weissert, 1982, p. 189) of rural women, 13.9% of urban woman (Kennedy, Forde, Smith, & Dutton, 1991, p. 309) and 15.8% (Thompson, Saltzman, &Johnson, 2001) to 16% of national samples of married or cohabiting women (Williams & Hawkins, 1989) (Straus, Gelles, Steinmetz, 1980, p. 40). Survey data also indicate that the official statistics may significantly underrepresent violence against women of color. ...
Since 1980, researchers and practitioners have had access to valid and reliable measures of myths about rape (Burt, 1980) and child sexual abuse (Collings, 1997). Despite the utility of such measures in research and program evaluation, no such measure of domestic violence myths currently exists. The present study was undertaken to fill this gap. In this study, domestic violence myths were defined as stereotypical attitudes and beliefs that are generally false but are widely and persistently held, and which serve to minimize, deny, or justify physical aggression against intimate partners. Based on defensive attribution and radical feminist theories, these myths were conceptualized as serving both an individual function of defending individuals from psychological threat and a wider social function of supporting patriarchy. The psychometric properties of an initial pool of 80 items was tested with a systematic random sample (N = 351) of university students and employees. Based on item contributions to scale reliability and validity, 18 of the 80 items were selected to form the Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance Scale (DVMAS). The scale had an internal consistency reliability (alpha) of 81, and good construct validity as evidenced by confirmatory factor analysis which perfectly fit the theory of four factors relating to character and behavioral victim blame, exoneration of the perpetrator, and minimization. A second study of the reliability and validity of the DVMAS was conducted with a similar sample (N = 284). The instrument exhibited excellent reliability (a = .88), good convergent validity (r = .37 to .65 with measures of rape myths, attitudes toward women, sex role stereotypes, and attitudes toward wife abuse), and good construct validity (the data fit the theoretical four factor solution). However the DVMAS correlated significantly with a measure of social desirability (r = -0.19) and a measure of attitudes toward use of force by governments (r = .34) and thus lacked divergent validity. Males scored significantly higher on the DVMAS than did females as did younger compared to older women; known groups validity was thus also supported. Limitations of the research, implications for policy and practice, as well as extensive future research suggestions are discussed.
... For a subset of violent men in four of the Minneapolis replications, those white and employed, he concludes that arrest seemed to have a shaming effect that reduced subsequent violence (see also Hopkins & McGregor 1991, pp. 125-30;Williams & Hawkins 1989). But for another subset of men, those black (in three of the studies) and unemployed (in four), arrest seemed to promote rage or defiance rather than shame. ...
... For a subset of violent men in four of the Minneapolis replications, those white and employed, he concludes that arrest seemed to have a shaming effect that reduced subsequent violence (see also Hopkins & McGregor 1991, pp. 125-30;Williams & Hawkins 1989). But for another subset of men, those black (in three of the studies) and unemployed (in four), arrest seemed to promote rage or defiance rather than shame. ...
iolence is gendered: it is in considerable measure a problem and consequence of masculinity. Contemporary state interventions to control violence are no less gendered: structures of response, from arrest through imprisonment, glorify tough cops, celebrate adversarial relations, and construct a virtuous "protective" state by incarcerating or, in some countries, killing "the bad guys". What alternatives are possible in an apparently closed system, where masculinity and masculinist structures are both the cause and putative cure of violence? In this essay, we consider men's violence toward women and ways of responding to it. Recognising the failure of traditional justice system responses toward violent men, we outline a more promising approach, one compatible with the principles and visions of republican criminology (Braithwaite 1989; Braithwaite & Pettit 1990). This approach uses a community conference strategy adapted from the Maori culture in New Zealand as a key element in an overall regulatory ideal that repudiates exploitative masculinities (see Mugford & Mugford 1992). We elucidate the community conference, discuss its
... La dissuasion s'exerce à partir des coûts directs ou intrinsèques engendrés par l'arrestation et les sanctions légales sur les individus (comme la privation de liberté par emprisonnement). Il y a toutefois les coûts indirects ou extrinsèques qui comptent aussi tels la perte de l'estime de soi, la brisure des relations sociales et conjugales, la perte de l'emploi, etc.. Selon un sondage américain mené par téléphone auprès de 494 hommes mariés ou en cohabitation, il semble que s'ils devaient subir une arrestation, les hommes craindraient spécialement les coûts indirects (Williams et Hawkins, 1989). En effet, en majorité, les Dans les affaires de violence conjugale, l'arrestation a été présentée comme un instrument servant à stopper l'agression immédiate (actuelle), à donner du pouvoir à la victime (Forell, 1991, cité dans Martin, 1997, à promouvoir un traitement juste, et encore à dissuader la violence future, au moins pour certains agresseurs (Sherman, Schmidt et Rogan, 1992). ...
... This leads to the second concern, which is to understand the mediating or intervening factors that reduce the effect of exposure to violence. Some intervening mechanisms that have been offered include the belief in the approval of violence towards one's partner (Williams, 1992) and social controls that prohibit individuals from later acting out what they have learned (Williams and Hawkins, 1989). Research that fails to control or measure mediating/intervening factors such as those argued above will not support or provide evidence consistent with a social learning approach. ...
Though many studies do show that emotional abuse exists within a pattern of other physical violence, few researchers have adopted nonphysical abuse as the crux of their research. The goal of this study is to contribute to the intimate partner violence literature by examining other forms of abuse such as controlling and emotional abuse that are largely neglected in social science research. More specifically, I examine the connection between women’s employment (status compatibility) and their risk of intimate partner abuse. Examining the role of male power and control in intimate relationship increases our understanding of the causes and consequences of male-to-female violence. Data are from the survey of Violence and Threats of Violence Against Women and Men in the United States, 1994-1996. This survey involved telephone interviews with a national probability sample of approximately 8,000 English-speaking women and 8,000 men ages 18 and older residing in households throughout the United States. Only women are analyzed in this study. Respondents were asked about their general fear of violence and ways in which they managed those fears, emotional abuse on the part of their partners, and incidents of actual or threatened violence experienced by all types of offenders. Taping into status compatibility by measuring women's contribution to relationship economic well-being through employment and education, hypotheses are derived from feminist theory suggesting that women in relationships that benefit men's marital power will experience more emotional abuse than women whose status are compatible with their partners. Consistent with prior research, controlling and emotional abuse is associated with low education attainment and poverty. Results reveal that control and emotional abuse is not greatest in relationships in which a male is employed and their female partner is not or in relationships in which a woman is employed and their male partner is not. Contrary to prior research, relationships in which unemployed men are married to women who work were not found to have experienced more emotional abuse than couples in which both partners are employed. Master of Arts Masters Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Ryan E. Spohn
Mary P. Koss received the 2000 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy. The award was given for her outstanding research, writing, and advocacy on violence against women. Through her scholarly research and writing, she has revolutionized our thinking about the nature, prevalence, and consequences of rape and other forms of violence against women. Her work has had a profound impact on public policies at national, state, and local levels.
Der Darstellung ausgewählter soziologischer Erklärungsansätze für Gewaltkriminalität muss eine Benennung der Grenzen des Vorhabens vorangehen. Erstens ist zu beachten, dass es um Erklärungen von Gewaltkriminalität geht, also die vielfältigen Formen von Gewalt, die strafrechtlich nicht als Kriminalität gelten, ausgeschlossen bleiben. Da diese Grenzziehungen von den jeweils nationalen Rechtssystemen vorgenommen werden und historisch erheblichen Änderungen unterworfen sind, bleibt der Gegenstandsbereich notwendig unscharf definiert. Zweitens weist der Gewaltbegriff insbesondere innerhalb strafrechtlicher Kontexte eine enge Fixierung auf physische Gewalt auf, so dass angesichts längerfristiger Veränderungen alltagsweltlicher Konzeptionen von Gewalt die strafrechtliche Perspektive den realen „Gewaltproblemen“ zunehmend unangemessener wird. Drittens stellen wir auf individuelle Gewaltkriminalität ab, einerseits einleuchtend, weil z. B. Genozide sicher einer anderen Erklärung bedürfen als ein Handtaschenraub, andererseits aber auch fragwürdig, weil die rein strafrechtliche Einordnung einer Straftat als Tat eines einzelnen nicht garantieren kann, dass nicht komplexe Gruppenprozesse und -bezüge von entscheidender Bedeutung für das Geschehen waren. Ob daher der Umstand, dass laut polizeilicher Kriminalstatistik die ganz überwiegende Mehrheit der Gewaltdelikte z. B. in Deutschland - und dies mit zunehmender Tendenz in den letzen 20 Jahrenin Alleintäterschaft begangen werden, bedeutet, dass die Erklärung individueller Gewaltkriminalität eine Erklärung von Gewaltkriminalität überhaupt darstellt, ist durchaus fraglich.
Mary P. Koss received the 2000 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy. The award was given for her outstanding research, writing, and advocacy on violence against women. Through her scholarly research and writing, she has revolutionized our thinking about the nature, prevalence, and consequences of rape and other forms of violence against women. Her work has had a profound impact on public policies at national, state, and local levels.
The pharmaceutical industry exists to serve the community, but over the years it has engaged massively in corporate crime, with the public footing the bill. This readable study by experts in medicine, law, criminology and public health documents the problems, ranging from false advertising and counterfeiting to corruption waste and overpricing, with unacceptable pressures on doctors, politicians, patients and the media. Uniquely, the book goes on to present a realistic and worldwide solution for the future, with positive policies encouraging honest dealing as well as partial privatization of enforcement and greater emphasis on creative research to develop the medicines that society needs most. © The Editors and Contributors Severally 2014. All rights reserved.
This book examines several types of crime prevention approaches and their goals, including those that are designed to prevent conditions that foster deviance, those directed toward persons or conditions with a high potential for deviance, and those for persons who have already committed crimes. This edition provides research and information on all aspects of crime prevention, including the physical environment and crime, neighborhood crime prevention, the mass media and crime prevention, crime displacement and diffusion, prediction, community policing, drugs, schools, and electronic monitoring and home confinement. Key terms and learning objectives supplement each chapter. A glossary defines terms from the text. © 2010 Matthew Bender & Company, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
This book examines several types of crime prevention approaches and their goals, including those that are designed to prevent conditions that foster deviance, those directed toward persons or conditions with a high potential for deviance, and those for persons who have already committed crimes. This edition provides research and information on all aspects of crime prevention, including the physical environment and crime, neighborhood crime prevention, the mass media and crime prevention, crime displacement and diffusion, prediction, community policing, drugs, schools, and electronic monitoring and home confinement. A new chapter on developmental crime prevention focuses on the early life experiences that predispose individuals to commit deviant acts and using risk factors in predicting behavior for secondary prevention. New attention is brought to situational prevention, partnerships for crime prevention, the politics of prevention strategies, and organizing dysfunctional neighborhoods. All chapters now include updated tables that indicate the state of the evidence as well as key terms, learning objectives, web references, and a helpful glossary.
This study reports the results of an experiment designed to provide empirical evidence related to fair value opinion shopping. The experiment provides initial evidence that managers are likely to shop for fair value opinions from external valuation professionals in the absence of a requirement to disclose that behavior to the board or auditor. Disclosure becomes a meaningful deterrent when the beneficiary of opinion shopping is perceived to be the manager. However, disclosure is an ineffective deterrent when the beneficiary is perceived to be shareholders.
The topic of regulatory compliance is by all accounts a complex one. In their introduction to this volume, Parker and Nielsen identify several general traditions in this regard, each with its own logic and empirical base. Of particular relevance for this chapter are the ‘mapping and measuring patterns of organizational responses to regulation and the factors associated with them’ and ‘testing theories that provide explanations for the association between concepts relevant to organizational responses to regulation and those responses themselves.’ Parker and Nielsen also point to some cross-cutting themes that focus on the ways in which organizations (or targets of regulation) respond to state and civil society controls – rules, restrictions and expectations for behavior that ostensibly will produce socially and economically desirable outcomes. In the discussion that follows we focus on the economic or material motivations that influence businesses to comply (or not) with regulatory dictates. Although the focus of the chapter is fairly narrow, our discussion acknowledges the importance of micro and macro distinctions and the linkages between organizational members and the company as a whole. We also recognize that economic motivations represent only one part of a broader set of motivational factors that affect compliance including social and normative considerations (which are considered by Kagan et al. and by Hutter in their contributions to this volume).
We combine prior research on ethical decision-making in organizations with a rational choice theory of corporate crime from criminology to develop a model of corporate offending that is tested with a sample of U.S. managers. Despite demands for increased sanctioning of corporate offenders, we find that the threat of legal action does not directly affect the likelihood of misconduct. Managers’ evaluations of the ethics of the act, measured using a multidimensional ethics scale, have a significant effect, as do outcome expectancies that result from being associated with the misconduct but not facing formal sanctions. The threat of formal sanctions appears to operate indirectly, influencing ethical evaluations and outcome expectancies. Obedience to authority also affects illegal intentions, with managers reporting higher prospective offending when they are ordered to engage in misconduct by a supervisor.
This article reports on the first quantitative perceptual deterrence study of corporate (rather than individual) deterrence. The study is based on interviews with 410 chief executives of small organizations and their officially recorded compliance with regulatory standards. We find partial support for the certainty of detection as a predictor of both self-reported and officially recorded compliance but no support for the certainty or severity of sanctioning. The narrow range of sanctions available in the particular regulatory domain studied (regulation of nursing home quality) has enabled a fuller specification than was possible in previous studies of an expected utility model for all available sanctions. Managers' expected corporate disutility from all sanctions fails to explain compliance. Deterrence does not work significantly more effectively for chief executives (a) of for-profit versus nonprofit organizations, (b) who are owners compared with those who are not owners, (c) who say they think about sanctions more (sanction salience), (d) who may better fit the rational choice model in that they are low on emotionality, (e) who have a weaker belief in the law. Nor is deterrence more effective when compliance costs are low.
Becoming trauma informed entails becoming more astutely aware of the ways in which people who are traumatized have their life trajectories shaped by the experience and its effects, and developing policies and practices which reflect this understanding. The idea that law and, in particular, the criminal justice system, should be trauma informed is novel, and, as a result, quite underdeveloped. In this paper we advance the general argument that more effective, fair, intelligent, and just legal responses must work from a perspective which is trauma informed. We specifically apply this argument to legal work being carried out and developed under the rubric of restorative justice as this way of thinking about law focuses on acknowledging and repairing the harms to individuals and relationships which result from conflict, crime or other wrongdoing. L'acquisition d'informations et de renseignements sur les traumatismes exige une grande sensibilité aux façons dont les victimes de traumatismes voient leur parcours de vie orienté par l'expérience et par ses effets; elle exige aussi que soient élaborées des politiques et des pratiques qui reflètent cette sensibilité. L'idée que les lois, plus particulièrement le système de justice pénale, doivent prendre les traumatismes en considération est relativement récente et, par conséquent, encore peu développée. Dans cet article, nous avançons la thèse générale que des réponses juridiques plus efficaces, plus équitables, plus intelligentes et plus justes doivent s'articuler autour d'une perspective éclairée quant aux traumatismes. Nous appliquons cette thèse spécifiquement au travail de nature juridique effectué et perfectionné au nom de la justice réparatrice puisque cette manière de concevoir la loi repose sur la reconnaissance et la réparation des préjudices causés aux personnes et aux relations par un différend, un crime ou tout autre acte répréhensible.
In this exploratory study, we ask whether perceptions of and responses to violence in dating relationships are gendered and whether the factors that affect male perceptions also influence females. Using the social control and feminist literatures as a guide, we explore gender differences in perception of sanction risk and attitudes toward resolution of violence when it occurs. Our data reveal several differences in male and female perceptions of formal and informal sanctions (attachment to significant others and stigmatic costs)-although not always in the expected direction-and show that different factors influence male and female perceptions of sanction likelihood and costs. We also find that females are more likely than males to seek relationship termination, informal controls, or formal justice outcomes if assaulted by their partner. However, the conditions that stimulate victims to consider these decisions vary by gender. These findings are discussed, along with implications for further research.
Using a combination of hypothetical scenarios and survey-type questions, this study investigates the effect of the context of the offense, formal sanctions, informal sanctions, and moral beliefs on self-reported projections to commit sexual assault. Male college students read and responded to five scenarios each describing a hypothetical sexual assault by a male. Respondents were asked to estimate the certainty of formal and informal punishment for the scenario male, the extent to which they believed the male's actions were morally wrong, and the likelihood that they would do what the male did under the same circumstances. We found that projections to commit sexual assault were affected by two circumstances of the incident, the likelihood that the male would be formally sanctioned (dismissed from the university or arrested) and the respondent's moral beliefs. The significant deterrent effect observed for formal sanction threats was not invariant, however. The fear of formal sanctions had no effect when respondents were inhibited by their moral evaluation of the incident. The deterrent effect of formal sanction threats did not vary by the level of social censure for the scenario male's actions. The implications of these finding for previous and subsequent deterrence research are discussed.
We propose that significant others and conscience function as agents of social control in a manner similar to the State. All three pose possible threats or costs that are more or less certain and severe which actors take into account in considering whether or not to violate the law. State-imposed costs, which have been addressed in the literature on deterrence, are material deprivations in the form of fines and incarceration. Socially imposed costs are the embarrassment or loss of respect actors might experience when they violate norms which significant others support. Self-imposed costs are shame or guilt feelings which actors might impose upon themselves when they offend their own conscience by engaging in behaviors they consider morally wrong. The threats of shame and embarrassment, like the threat of legal sanctions, affect the expected utility of crime and, thus, the likelihood that crime will occur. In the research reported here, parallel measures are developed of the perceived threats of each of these three kinds of punishment for three illegal behaviors (tax cheating, petty theft, drunk driving). The effects of these perceived threats on people's intentions to violate the law are then examined in a random sample of adults. Threats of shame and of legal sanctions inhibit the inclination to commit each of the three offenses, but the findings for embarrassment appear less compatible with the expected utility model.
Legal control of aggressive acts within the family must be assessed against a background of other familial controls. This study identifies factors that control male aggression against female partners in intimate relationships. Hirschi's (1969) theory of the social bond, applied almost exclusively to delinquency, is used to test the importance of attachments, commitments, involvement, and beliefs in controlling husband-to-wife assault. By looking at males who do not assault their partners, we gain some insight into the ways in which legal policies might be structured to reduce domestic violence against women.
In contrast to a recent survey conducted by Miller and Simpson, two earlier surveys of adults, one conducted in 1972 and the other in 1982, reported that women scored higher than men on measures of what Grasmick and Bursik recently have called perceived threats of shame and embarrassment, as well as legal sanctions, for violating the law. Hagan's power-control theory, coupled with trends in labor force and household composition, is used to predict a decline over time in the magnitude of the effect of sex on perceived threats of sanctions. The 1982 survey is merged with an identical one conducted in 1992 to determine whether men and women have become more alike in their perception of these threats. Evidence supporting the predictions from power-control theory is found for theft but not for assault. The findings are discussed in the context of various theories and previous research concerning gender, crime, and social control.
Domestic violence is a common social problem throughout the western world, resulting in a great many deaths and physical and psychological injuries every year. Previous studies show that alcohol use and intoxication, by both the perpetrators and victims, are frequently implicated in violent events. Although the association or correlation between alcohol and domestic violence is still open to discussion in all countries, its investigation has never previously been attempted in Saudi Arabia where alcohol is not allowed and domestic violence is not yet officially acknowledged. This, therefore, is the first investigation into the association in Saudi Arabia between alcohol (ab)use and domestic violence. Western explorations into the extent and causes of domestic violence have taken many different approaches. For example, some researchers have undertaken surveys of violence in communities while others have interviewed the victims of violence. Others have tested individual subjects on their interpersonal aggression, while yet others have inspected police records and/or hospital data. Following a review of international research, this thesis then explains why, in Saudi Arabia, it was decided that surveying alcoholic men and interviewing women married to alcoholic men, plus comparison groups, would be the best way to begin exploring the connections between alcohol and domestic violence.
Largely absent from US criminal sentencing since the early 1800s, shame penalties have been staging a comeback. This revival has been met by a number of debates among legal scholars, one of which centers on the potential for such penalties to reduce crime. This study addresses this debate by investigating the impact of formal shaming on drunk driving and alcohol‐related traffic safety in Ohio. In accordance with the Traffic Law Reform Act of 2004, judges have since been mandated to issue “restricted plates” to certain first‐time and all repeat DUI offenders with limited driving privileges. Results indicate a curvilinear association between punishment levels and drunk driving. Increases in the certainty and visibility of plates are associated with decreases in suspension rates, but there is a point at which increasing the punishment level no longer retains its intended impact. In addition, levels of punishment are unrelated to alcohol‐related traffic safety.
Bullying is an important social problem that occurs within a bounded social setting. As such, it is best understood by analyzing the social dynamics that produce and sustain it. However, previous research has tended to view bullying as a manifestation of personal pathology or amorphous characteristics of contexts. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by applying the construct of collective efficacy to account for variations in the frequency of bullying perpetration within schools. Just as collective efficacy provides a theoretical foundation for understanding the dynamics of bullying in schools, these settings also provide an ideal social context for testing collective efficacy theory. The reason is that schools are clearly defined contexts with regular, ongoing social interactions among students, teachers, school staff, and administrators. In the present study, both lagged cross-sectional (LCS) models and fall-to-spring change (FSC) models were estimated to determine the empirical relations between student perceptions of collective efficacy and bullying perpetration, using data collected from 7,299 youth in fifth, eighth, and eleventh grades in 78 schools. Two key results were found: (1) perceptions of collective efficacy were negatively, significantly, and substantially associated with the frequency of bullying perpetration within schools over time, and (2) of the three components of collective efficacy (cohesion and trust, informal social control by adults, informal social control by peers) identified in a principal components factor analysis, cohesion and trust had the strongest estimated effects in all models estimated. Findings suggest that collective efficacy theory can provide a useful framework for capturing important dynamics of bullying in schools with important implications for prevention and intervention.
During the past decade, court-ordered diversion and treatment procedures have proliferated in response to the problems of court congestion and prison overcrowding. Underlying these court orders are stiff sanctions that are often used to threaten offenders to comply with the court's mandate. Given the widespread use of court orders and their stiff penalties for violations, the effectiveness of sanction threats in enforcing compliance among offenders has rarely been examined. Using a sample of offenders mandated by the courts into drug treatment, this article examines the effects of sanction threat on the offenders' perceptions of threat and their lengths of stay in drug treatment.
A persistent theme in intervening with male batterers is the deterrent effect of certain and severe sanctions. However, no studies address the effect of “specific” deterrence on batterer program outcomes. Fifteen-month follow-up data from a multisite evaluation of batterer programs was used to test the effect of batterer perceptions of the likelihood of jailing on dropout and reassault. Approximately half of the batterers perceived jailing as likely to result from program dropout or reassault. Batterers from programs with a court review process for program compliance and/or higher arrest rates for reassault were more likely to perceive jail as likely. The results also support the “experiential effect” of prior contact with the criminal justice system and alcohol treatment. However, neither perceived certainty of sanctions (jailing likely) nor perceived severity of sanctions was predictive of dropout and reassault. Increasing perceptions of criminal justice sanctions alone may not prevent batterers from reassault.
We test an extended deterrence model in a Japanese workplace setting. In addition to formal punishments imposed by managerial authorities, employees contemplating rule violation are assumed to take into account the certainty and severity of two other types of punishment - socially-imposed embarrassment and self-imposed shame. All three threats are proposed to be deterrents to employee noncompliance with organizational rules. Previous studies using this theory, all of which have been conducted in the United States, find that shame is a stronger deterrent to deviance than is embarrassment. Drawing on previous discussions of cultural differences between Japan and the United States, we develop a rationale for predicting that the effect of embarrassment will be stronger in a sample of Japanese than in previous samples of Americans. In fact, the results from the Japanese sample concerning the relative importance of shame and embarrassments as inhibitors of deviance are remarkably similar to previous results from American samples. Implications of this finding are considered for the debate concerning whether deviance results primarily from factors internal or external to the individual.
Previous research on rational choice theory has typically asked subjects to evaluate the impact of research-derived consequences on offending likelihood using a hypothetical scenario design. However, this procedure may not produce results that accurately reflect the subjects' actual consideration of consequences. In this study, subjects were allowed to develop their own set of potential consequences in response to two hypothetical offending scenarios. The results support the use of this innovative technique, but also revealed many types of consequences that were not commonly used in previous tests of the theory. Limitations of the study and implications for future tests of rational choice theory are discussed.
Research on the formation of sanction risk perceptions has concentrated virtually exclusively on the bases of legal sanction perceptions. This article examines the correlates of extralegal risk perceptions. Theoretical arguments relate previous offending experiences to current perceptions of self-imposed (guilt) and socially imposed (social disapproval) sanctions. The empirical implications of these arguments are tested. Findings indicate that individuals' perceptions of the risk of social disapproval are associated with their own offending experiences, and individuals' perceptions of the risk of guilt are associated with their friends', as well as their own offending experiences. The findings suggest that research on the formation and modification of sanction risk perceptions should not be limited to perceptions of legal sanctions.
Despite the important contributions of Burt's (1980)8.
Burt , M. R. l980. Cultural myths and support for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38: 217–230. View all references Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, no similar valid and reliable measure of domestic violence myths currently exists. This article describes the development and initial validation of the Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance Scale (DVMAS). In the first study, an initial pool of 80 items was evaluated and an 18-item instrument constructed. A second validation study indicated that the DVMAS had excellent reliability (alpha = .88) and good face and content validity as well as good indications of convergent, construct, and known groups validity. Divergent validity was only partially supported. The studies also indicated that domestic violence myths serve individual psychological functions as well as social functions related to blaming the victim, exonerating the perpetrator, and minimizing the violence.
The paper explores the existence of various social institutions that have resisted the reach of criminal law enforcement authority over time. Focusing on the response of the Catholic Church to widespread clergy sexual abuse, which in many respects reflects the practice of santuary in the European middle ages, as well as the historic reistance of families and corporations to criminal law authority, the paper discusses the reasons underlying the phenonenon of sanctuaries, and offers insights into how criminal wrongdoing might best be addressed therein.
Using scenario-based survey data from a sample of 330 university students, this study examined the effects of low self-control,
rational choice variables, and control measures on intentions to cheat on a college exam. A moderate bivariate association
was observed between low self-control and cheating intentions. However, a series of multivariate regression equations showed
that low selfcontrol did not have a significant effect on intentions to cheat once the influence of other variables, especially
anticipated shame, were controlled. Furthermore, findings supported the rational choice framework in explaining student decisions
to cheat. Implications regarding these findings are discussed.
Taiwan is known for rapid economic growth, but in 1988, the government ended 40 years of martial law, resulting in greater political and social freedoms. This paper explores the influence of economic, social, and political structures on crime in the Republic of China on Taiwan. A time series analysis examines the structural correlates of crime in Taiwan from 1964 to 1990. Both total crime and burglary/larceny rates are regressed on seven independent variables derived from various theoretical perspectives. The results support Hagan's power-control and Christie's crime-industry perspectives for total crime, while measures assessing lack of economic means and the economic deprivation were significant for burglary/larceny.
In order to establish the relative importance of reasons for not engaging in illegal activities, respondents were administered
a questionnaire containing a list of possible factors that could account for not committing crimes, and were then asked to
rank them. Multidimensional scaling analyses revealed the underlying structure of these factors. Specifically, respondents
tended to structure their reasons based on the formality/informality of a negative consequence and the relative seriousness
of a sanction.
Perceptual deterrence research attempts to measure the effect of perceived certainty and severity of punishment in preventing
criminal behavior, while considering the rewards (from the perception of the offender) of committing the crime. Many studies
in the area of perceptual deterrence are lacking any measure of reward, resulting in an incomplete model. This study will
examine the goals of men who commit rape to better understand what compels the rapist. Respondents for this study were drawn
from the population of rapists in the maximum security state penitentiaries located in two Southern states. All were surveyed
concerning the rewards that would lead them to commit rape, while considering two levels of risk of apprehension. The results
reveal that those who rape often have a specific motive in mind and have calculated the risks involved in committing the offense.
Two decades of research have failed to produce consistent and compelling results that arrest deters intimate partner violence. This tradition of research is reviewed, concluding that little can be learned about the deterrent efficacy of arrest (or other sanctions) for this type of violence until a more complete framework of deterrence theory is specified to guide further research. The framework should delineate mediating influences besides deterrence, linking arrest to the prevention, reduction, or cessation of intimate partner violence, and factors that moderate those influences. Such factors bear on the differential sensitivity to sanctions on the part of actual or potential perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Recommendations for future research are offered, including suggestions for data needed to draw defensible causal inferences about these mediating and moderating influences.
Both formal and informal crime control are used to deter people from engaging in criminal behavior that is harmful to the well-being of society. Formal criminal justice control uses the law and official government agencies to promote compliance, whereas informal criminal justice control uses morals and social institutions to encourage people to be law abiding. This study examined survey data to determine the importance of each form of social control among Chinese and U.S. college students. Chinese students were more likely to view formal and informal crime control as important mechanisms. Furthermore, Chinese students ranked the blending of formal and informal crime control as being more important.
Justice processing for crimes against women is reviewed. The data reveal conviction rates for partner violence and rape by known acquaintances are miniscule; mandatory arrest, protection orders, and diversion programs inadequately deter rebattering; few losses are compensated; and the adversarial justice process is retraumatizing, exacerbating survivor's self-blame. To better address crimes against women, several nations and tribal communities use communitarian approaches, forms of restorative justice. The offense is framed to include the perpetrator, victim, and community. The process forgoes incarceration to have family, peers, and advocates design perpetrator rehabilitation, victim restoration, and social reintegration of both victim and perpetrator. Evaluations suggest communitarian justice may increase victim satisfaction, raise the social costs of offending, multiply social control and support resources, and open a new avenue to targeted prevention.
Evolutionary psychologists such as Wilson and Daly (1993b) hypothesize that one goal of male-perpetrated domestic violence is control over female sexuality, including the deterrence of infidelity. According to this hypothesis, domestic violence varies with women's reproductive value or expected future reproduction, declining steeply as women age. We tested this hypothesis with a sample of 3,969 cases of male-perpetrated partner-abuse reported to a single police precinct in a large urban area over a 14-year period. Results show that (a) rates of domestic violence decrease as women age, (b) younger men are at greatest risk for perpetrating domestic violence, (c) younger, reproductive age women incur nearly 10 times the risk of domestic violence as do older, post-reproductive age women, and (d) the greater risk of domestic violence incurred by reproductive age women is not attributable solely to mateship to younger, more violent men. Discussion addresses theoretical implications of these findings and suggests a refinement of the feminist hypothesis of domestic violence against women.
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