DISCERNING UNFAIRNESS WHERE OTHERS MAY NOT: LOW SELF-CONTROL AND UNFAIR SANCTION PERCEPTIONS |
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| Authors: | ALEX R PIQUERO ZENTA GOMEZ-SMITH LYNN LANGTON |
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| Institution: | Alex R. Piquero is professor of criminology in the Center for Studies in Criminology &Law at the University of Florida, Member of the National Consortium on Violence Research and Member of the MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. His research interests include criminal careers, criminological theory and quantitative research methods. In 2002, he won the ASC Cavan Young Scholar Award and in 2004 was awarded a University of Florida Teacher of the Year Award.;Zenta Gomez-Smith is a doctoral student in the Center for Studies in Criminology &Law at the University of Florida. Her research interests include life-course criminology, violence and corrections.;Lynn Langton is a doctoral student in the Center for Studies in Criminology &Law at the University of Florida. Her research interests include white-collar crime and criminological theory. |
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| Abstract: | Criminologists have long recognized that whether one perceives a sanction as fair or unfair influences the deterrent success of sanctions and the legitimacy afforded to legal authority. Unfortunately, although several scholars have claimed that individual characteristics influence how sanctions are interpreted, very little research has explored the individual factors that influence how one perceives sanctions to be fair/unfair. In this study, we take Gottfredson and Hirschi's notion of self-control and use it to explain, in part, whether an individual perceives a sanction as fair/unfair. We also examine how sanction perceptions and low self-control influence the perceived anger that may result from being singled out for sanctioning and whether self-control conditions the relationship between perceptions and anger. Our results suggest that individuals with low self-control are more likely to perceive sanctions as unfair, that unfair sanctions and low self-control lead to perceived anger for being singled out for punishment and that self-control conditions the effect of unfair sanction perceptions on perceived anger. Future directions are outlined. |
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| Keywords: | deterrence sanctions defiance self-control |
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