Official Labeling, Criminal Embeddedness, and Subsequent Delinquency

Bernburg, Jón Gunnar; Krohn, Marvin D.; Rivera, Craig

doi:10.1177/0022427805280068

Cited by 330 publications

(291 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…This is problematic when sanctions are used to induce behavioral change in people who are showing the undesired behavior. Indeed, literature on reintegrative shaming suggests that sanctions work counterproductive because they express rejection of the person (Braithwaite 1989(Braithwaite , 2006 and other findings in criminology demonstrate that actually having received a punishment (rather than only the threat of it) evokes criminal behavior (Bernburg et al 2006;Paternoster and Piquero 1996). A recent illustration of this is a study performed by Harris and Worden (2014) among police officers who had obtained a complaint.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When sanctions convey moral norms

Mulder

2016

Eur J Law Econ

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Sanctions not only have the instrumental function of deterring people from undesired behavior but they also have the ability to convey moral norms. As such, they may create a moral motivation not to engage in the sanctioned behavior. This is desirable as this makes the success of a sanctioning system depend less on quality of enforcement. However, sanctions may not always succeed in conveying moral norms. In this paper, three conditions are highlighted that, in the psychology literature, have been empirically proven to influence whether a sanction succeeds to evoke moral norms. First, a sanction should not be regarded as a way to make up for the negative consequences of a transgression a sanction. So, they should be communicated in a retributive way rather than in a compensatory way. Second, as punishments communicate an obligatory rule and rewards communicate a voluntary rule, punishments are a better way to incur moral norms than rewards. Third, severe sanctions more strongly convey a moral norm than mild ones as long as these severe sanctions are not unreasonably severe, are installed by trustworthy authorities and in a fair way. The value of the moral expressive function of sanctions, as well as its drawbacks, are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When sanctions convey moral norms

Mulder

2016

Eur J Law Econ

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“…In criminology, labeling theory predicts that justice intervention puts a deviant label on an offender which causes him or her to become more deeply imbedded in a deviant social group (Becker, 1963;Lemert, 1967). In line with this, recent research has shown that having received punishment evokes criminal behavior (Paternoster & Piquero, 1996;Bernburg, Krohn, & Rivera, 2006). Also, literature on reintegrative shaming underlines that sanctions work counterproductive as they communicate rejection of the person (J.…”

Section: Moral Judgments and Behaviormentioning

confidence: 86%

Sanctions and moral judgments: The moderating effect of sanction severity and trust in authorities

Mulder

Verboon

Cremer

2008

Euro J Social Psych

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In order to induce people to follow rules, sanctions are often introduced. In this paper we argue for the importance of studying the positive influence of sanctioning systems on people's moral convictions regarding the rule advocated by the sanction and of studying factors that moderate this influence. In three experiments we tested the influence of sanction severity and showed that severe sanctions evoke stronger moral judgments with regard to rule-breaking behavior and stronger social disapproval towards rule-breakers than mild sanctions. This was particularly the case when trust in authorities is high rather than low. Implications of these findings are discussed. Also, a framework is proposed to understand the possible circumstances that determine whether sanctions either increase or decrease moral norms. Copyright # 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Many social situations are regulated by rules and punishments. For example, fines are imposed for exceeding the maximum speed level to encourage safe driving behavior and imposed for free riding in public transport to encourage people to pay their fee. Punishments are thus a means to induce people to do what is considered morally ''right.'' From an economic point of view, sanctions on undesired behavior deter people from performing undesired behavior and encourage desired behavior simply because such a sanction makes the undesired behavior less attractive. Various experimental studies have indeed shown that sanctioning systems can successfully increase pro-social behavior (

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“…Secondly, most legal cases are not reported or published in legal databases. It is important to note that this distinction does not refer to whether the case is available to the public, but whether the decision is published and circulated for commercial purposes (Arnold, 1999). Furthermore, when the court believes that a particular case does not have precedential value or does not add substantively to the relevant body of law, the court can reserve the case as unpublished (in the United States) or unreported (in Canada).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%