It is supposed that threats of punishment deter potential criminals from committing crimes. The correctness of this theory is, however, questionable. Numerous empirical investigations have come to different results. In this article a meta-analysis is described which tries to find out the reasons for the different findings. First evaluations indicate that the methods of research have an influence on the results and that a possible deterring effect of the penal law can only be covered reasonably with a very differentiating model. Not all criminal acts can be influenced by deterrence. It appears that the most significant deterrent effects can be achieved in cases of minor crime, administrative offences and infringements of informal social norms. In cases of homicide, on the other hand, the meta-analysis does not indicate that the death penalty has a deterrent effect. According to the results, the validity of the deterrence hypothesis must be looked at in a differenciated manner.
This study examined the relationship of personal values to age using data from two representative surveys. We hypothesized that individuals organize personal values, regardless of their age, as a circle with the same order of values on this circle but that older persons are closer to conservation and more remote from openness to change and closer to self-transcendence and more distant from self-enhancement. The structural stability of the value circle over age was largely confirmed across and within individuals. Different age groups exhibited a tendency to more strongly cluster those values that they rated as relatively important. (PsycINFO Database Record
The paper compares the theoretical implications of two popular scales for the measurement of personal values, the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) of Schwartz et al. (J Cross-Cult Psychol, 32:519-542, 2001) and the IRVS of Hermann (Werte und Kriminalität: Konzeption einer allgemeinen Kriminalitätstheorie [Values and criminality: conception of a general theory of criminality], 2003; Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen, 2014). These scales come from psychology and sociology, respectively. They were developed, independently of each other, to serve different purposes, are based on different theories, and use different statistical models. We here study the validity of each scale for either theory. It is shown that using the PVQ methodology leads to similar and robust model solutions for data collected with either scale. Conversely, using the methodology that is standard for Individual Reflexive Value Scale (IRVS) data confirms the theoretical predictions for PVQ data but leads to unstable solutions for IRVS data. Nevertheless, the IRVS suggests "peace of mind" as an additional basic value and items that serve to complement the PVQ value circle. "Religion" is found to also fit into the structure of basic PVQ values but it contains a unique component.
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