摘要:

The study of crime suffers from an inattention to the social consequences of criminal acts. Conceiving crimes within the larger context of “hazard,” data are reported on the relative seriousness of conventional and white‐collar crimes, as well as other hazards, using a sample of Washington state respondents. The results indicate that there is an inverse relationship between the perceived likelihood of a hazard and its seriousness. Generally, the more immediate the threat of a hazard, such as white‐collar crimes, the more serious it is perceived to be. There are also implications from these consequences for perceptions of institutional effectiveness and interpersonal relationships. This suggests that future studies of the consequences of criminality, especially white‐collar and corporate violations, might be directed toward the notions of risk and, eventually, soc

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00346.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper offers an explanation for rates of fatal firearm accidents in terms of confidence in collectively provided justice and security. It describes the collective security model and presents an analysis of time‐series data from Detroit which supports it: accidental gunshot deaths varied positively with violent crime and civil disturbances and negatively with the allocation of resources to the police. Finally, it discusses some implications for research design and social polic

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00347.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This study examines the relationship between assessments of the risk of punishment and self‐reported involvement in three illegal behaviors in a sample of college‐aged respondents. It is found that those respondents who had not yet committed a particular offense were more likely to perceive a greater certainty of punishment than those with experience in committing the offense. For two of three offenses the effect of becoming involved in offending had a more substantial impact on the perceptions of those respondents with both experience in offending and high perceived certainty of punishment than on those who had experience and less pessimistic estimates of risk Finally, a multivariate analysis of the relationship between behavioral and perceptual change reveals that each variable affects the other even when other sources of change are controlled. The importance of the findings for the deterrence doctrine are discus

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00348.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The relationship between crimes and arrests is one of the central issues in deterrence theory. There are several conceptual difficulties in attempting to assess whether arrests deter crimes or the number of crimes determine the number of arrests. These problems are compounded when rates are used to measure both variables. The issue is whether criminals respond to arrests or the police respond to changes in crime. The present analysis compares regression results when the variables are measured both as rates and raw numbers for three offenses: homicide, robbery, and burglary. The results indicate that arrests follow crimes. This suggests the need to reexamine some studies that argue that criminals’perceptions of arrest rates are an indication of deterrenc

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00349.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

For more than two decades, the validity and reliability of official statistics on crime have been treated as highly questionable. Recently a number of studies have investigated the construction of official statistics on crime and issues related to their reliability and validity. However, there has been no recent attempt to bring together and evaluate these studies; thus, we do not know what official statistics mean and how we should interpret them. In the present paper it is argued that it is now possible to develop an understanding of what official statistics measure. It appears that both citizens and the police are in general agreement about what a serious crime is: it involves bodily injury (or serious threat of bodily injury), the property stolen is of high value, the act is committed by a stranger, or it involves breaking and entering. The authors argue that the perceived seriousness of the crime, first and primarily as defined by the victim, second as determined by the police, apparently accounts for most of the variance in whether a crime is reported and officially recorded; personal characteristics of the offender and victim have only minor effects. It is concluded that the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), as measured by the FBI Index of Crime, are valid indicators of serious crimes as defined by the citizenry. The evidence supporting this conclusion is very substantial with regard to motor vehicle theft, robbery, burglary, and homicide, while with larceny, rape, and aggravated assault, the evidence supporting this conclusion is substantial but does require the interpretation of conflicting evidence.

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00350.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Utilizing a theoretical perspective (the “social supports model”) increasingly applied by stress researchers in other fields, the present endeavor explores whether social supports operate to shield officers from the stresses emanating from police work To investigate this issue, 91 suburban officers were administered a questionnaire that contained scales measuring four job‐related stressors, four types of social supports, and two forms of psychological stress—work and life. With regard to the stressors, the data analysis revealed that feelings of dangerousness were significantly and positively related to both stress scales, while shift change and court problems increased only general lye stress. It was also found that supervisory support mitigates work stress while family support helps to reduce more general psychological discomfort. These latter results rein force the assertion that future research could profit by systematically exploring the circumstances, such as social supports, which enable police to cope effectively with the more stressful features of the

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00351.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper analyzes the impact of individual attributes and organizational influences in the determination of correctional officers’attitudes toward inmates. Drawing on survey data from 179 line‐level correctional officers, the analysis evaluates the expectations of prison reformers that more highly educated, female, and minority officers will hold more positive attitudes toward their inmate clientele. Contrary expectations drawn from the sociology of work literature suggest that the work‐role socialization will overshadow the effect of individual attributes in the determination of officer attitudes. The analysis reveals that minority officers hold more positive orientations toward inmates, while education and gender exert no impact. In addition, organizational‐level characteristics are also important in the prediction of officer views of inmates. These findings suggest that correctional reforms that focus primarily on changing the demographic composition of correctional officers are quite unlikely to ameliorate significantly the tension in today's prisons. It is necessary for both reformers and social scientists to develop more sophisticated analyses of the interplay between individual attributes and work organization characteristics and their joint effects on behavior in the prison

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00352.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Nonrecursive models which have been used to assess the potentially reciprocal relationship between fear of crime and handgun ownership may suffer on two accounts: (a) the use of “weak” instrumental variables: and (b) the measurement of household (versus personal) handgun ownership. Data from the 1980 NORC General Social Survey are used in this study to minimize these problems in examining the relationships among fear of crime, victimization, and protective handgun ownership among males and females. Significant effects of fear and victimization on personal gun ownership are found among men but not among women. These results are discussed in light of two concerns. First, earlier research is confirmed that finds gender differences in the factors influencing gun ownership. Second, a clear need is emphasized for further research addressing questions of both conceptualization and measurement in the study of fear of crime and its effects on protective handgun owners

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00353.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Although much debate and research have been centered on the relative importance of familial structure (for example, presence of parents) and functions (for example, relationship with parents) for delinquency, the discipline has failed to come to terms, both theoretically and empirically, with the inherent complexity of the issues. Recognizing that structure necessitates some functional consequences, the complexity of the issues is explored. Utilizing a city‐wide representative sample of black youths and a somewhat systematic sample of white youths, an Automatic Interaction Detection (AID) analysis is used to uncover unsuspected interaction patterns of six independent variables. Interaction with the father emerged as the single most important variable for blacks. However, AID did uncover for blacks important interactions with family size, presence of father, and social class. A somewhat different and more tenuous pattern was found for whites, with social class being the most important variable and father–son interaction showing very little relationship with delinquency. It seems evident, therefore, that structure and function, especially for blacks, are both of importance for delinque

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00354.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0011-1384    

DOI:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1985.tb00355.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1985

数据来源: WILEY