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- Title
PERCEIVED RISK AND SOCIAL CONTROL: DO SANCTIONS REALLY DETER?
- Authors
Paternoster, Raymond; Saltzman, Linda E.; Waldo, Gordon P.; Chiricos, Theodore G.
- Abstract
Perceptual deterrence researchers have used simple cross-sectional correlations between prior behavior and current perceptions to study the effect of legal threats on social control. Such designs are inadequate because they: (1) confuse the causal ordering of perceptions and behavior, and (2) fail to take into account other inhibitory factors in an explicit causal model. In an analysis of panel data, the methodological simplicity of earlier studies is shown to have led researchers to reach erroneous conclusions. Our data suggest that studies report an experiential effect, not a deterrent effect, and that the effect of perceived sanctions on criminal involvement is minimal once social definitional factors (moral commitment, Informal sanctions) are controlled.
- Subjects
RISK perception; SOCIAL control; CAUSATION (Criminal law); LEGAL sanctions; SOCIAL psychology; SOCIAL sciences
- Publication
Law & Society Review, 1983, Vol 17, Issue 3, p457
- ISSN
0023-9216
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3053589