The study of sanctioning effects has a rich history in deterrence and labeling theory. Most analyses have only used official data to study these effects. Yet, some more recent studies indicate that it is necessary to investigate self-reported as well as official data since it appears that sanctioning has differential effects on self-reported delinquency and formal control interventions. The current study contributes to this small body of research by using propensity score matching to analyze panel data from an ongoing English (Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Developmental Study) and a German (Crime in the modern City) study. We estimated average treatment effects of system contacts on both reoffending and subsequent contacts for juveniles living in Peterborough (ENG) and Duisburg (GER). Our findings are that (1) although official contacts have no substantial effects on the prevalence or versatility of reoffending, (2) they substantially increase the risk of a future formal contact. These results were almost identical at both sites, which may indicate a more general finding on the effects of formal control interventions.
The majority of differential deterrability research has investigated whether people differ in the extent to which a perceived threat of sanctions deters them from committing a crime. Less is known about the differential influence of criminal justice intervention on sanction threat perceptions. According to deterrence theory, however, for justice intervention to successfully deter crime, a process of perceptual updating is required. In the current study, we used panel data from German adolescents to supplement the research on differential updating. We applied fixed effects regressions to analyze whether people with weaker or stronger morals update their perceptions of detection risk differently following experiences of police detection. Our findings suggest that they do: risk perceptions increased more in adolescents with weak morals than in adolescents with strong morals when they experienced a higher certainty of detection (a higher detection rate). Combined with previous findings on differential deterrence (by personal morality), our results indicate that deterrence processes may—for individuals with weak morals—play a more critical role in the prevention of crime than previous nondifferential research has suggested.
In den letzten Jahren ist die Anzahl der Häuser des Jugendrechts in Deutschland stark angestiegen. Einige dieser Einrichtungen verfolgen neben u.a. der Verfahrensbeschleunigung und angemessenerer Reaktionen auf Jugendkriminalität auch das Ziel, das Sicherheitsgefühl in der Bevölkerung zu stärken. Der Beitrag geht daher der Frage nach, ob durch die Errichtung von Häusern des Jugendrechts überhaupt eine Verbesserung des Sicherheitsgefühls in der Bevölkerung erreicht werden kann. Dabei wird dieses Ziel vor dem Leitgedanken des JGG diskutiert und in den Kontext aktueller Daten zur Kriminalitätsfurcht gestellt.
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