Maturity of Judgment and Perceptual Deterrence

Abstract

Recent deterrence literature has found that the degree to which sanction threats are perceived to influence subsequent offending differs within individuals and between individuals over time. This study examines whether three psychosocial aspects (temperance, perspective, responsibility) relevant to the maturity of judgment predict within-individual and between-individual differences in levels of perceptual deterrence. Random effects regression models with fixed effects (hybrid models) are used to estimate the impact of maturity of judgment on the perceived risks, costs, and benefits of crime among a sample of serious juvenile offenders from the Pathways to Desistance study over 7 years of development. The results support both within-person effects and between-person effects. More mature judgment ability is generally associated with the perception of greater risks, heavier costs of punishment, and fewer rewards of crime. The rate of change in perceptual deterrence by maturity of judgment varies between individuals. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Legal socialization: Understanding the obligation to obey the law

“…The findings about legitimacy and procedural justice generally align with existing research following in the tradition set by Tyler (e.g., Tyler, 2006a,b), although few directly measure the general obligation to obey the law (Walters & Bolger, 2019). The findings also align with tenets of deterrence theory (Lee et al, 2018;Loughran et al, 2012); to the extent that individuals report more perceptual deterrence, they also feel more obligated to obey the law. This may speak to coerced obligation out of fear, pragmatism, or a dull compulsion rather than truly free consent (Nix et al, 2019;Posch et al, 2020).…”

“…At the same time, within the legal context, deterrence may also shape the felt obligation to obey (Tyler, 2006a;. Deterrence theory suggests that when the costs of crime outweigh the benefits, crime will not occur (Lee et al, 2018;Loughran et al, 2012). To the extent that individuals report more perceptual deterrence, they also feel more obligated to obey the law.…”

Perceived Control, Severity, Certainty, and Emotional Fear: Testing an Expanded Model of Deterrence

“…There is growing evidence that this traditional conceptualization is incomplete. Various personality traits exert strong effects on sanction perceptions (Lee, Sullivan, and Barnes 2018; Pickett and Bushway 2015; Thomas et al 2013; van Gelder and de Vries 2012), and these perceptions are interdependent (Erickson et al 1977; Thomas et al 2018). Unfortunately, theoretical explanations for such findings have remained elusive, as has a model of the psychology of sanction risk.…”

The Role of Arrest Risk Perception Formation in the Association Between Psychopathy and Aggressive Offending

“…Nagin and Paternoster (1993) and Piquero and Tibbetts (1996) were among the first to merge individual differences and situational factors of risk and reward (Piquero et al, 2011). Since then, the association between individual characteristics and heterogeneity in risk perceptions has been assessed using various samples, including adolescents (Altikriti & Nedelec, 2020; Lee et al, 2018), adult probationers (Pogarsky, 2007), college students (Pogarsky, 2002), and a representative sample of New Zealanders (Wright et al, 2004). These studies have generally pointed to an association between individual traits and perceived risk and reward heterogeneity across individuals.…”