SOC101Y1 : Condensed Reading Notes "Perception amongst..."
Document Summary
Risk perception among serious offenders - the role of crime and. Previous research on the perceived certainty of punishment indicates that individuals with experience in committing crimes perceive arrest as less certain than do those without such experience. Most studies however, have not considered the experience of sanctions in conjunction with the frequency of criminal behavior. With a sample of 1,046 incarcerated felons, we examined relationships among perceived risk of arrest, arrest history, and frequency of committing crimes. Numerous studies have found that individuals with experience in commit- ting an offense have lower estimates of the risk of punishment than those with no such experience (claster, 1967; jensen, 1969; jensen et al. , 1978; teevan,1976; tittle, 1977; waldo and chiricos, 1972). This negative correlation has been viewed traditionally as evidence for a deterrent effect; that is, people who have higher estimates of risk are less likely to commit crimes.
