Correlates of deterrence: Problems of theory and method

A central methodological problem in ascertaining the correlates of deterrence is that there is no unambiguous method by which deterred persons can be identified. Assuming that the identification of a legal threat by persons who indicated that they have not committed a crime (the use of marijuana) is evidence of deterrence, this study differentiates deterred from undeterred persons based on a number of demographic variables. The results show that persons who were deterred from marijuana use by legal threats were indistinguishable on the basis of age, sex, race, marital status, and occupation from those who refrained from using marijuana for other reasons.     

What drives punitive beliefs?: Demographic characteristics and justifications for sentencing

Punitive attitudes of the general public were the focus of a considerable amount of research. Much of the work focused on the demographic correlates of punitive attitudes and only a limited amount of research focused on how punitive attitudes were justified. That is, what does the public want to get out of punishing criminal offenders? In this research, how a sample of Virginia residents recommended sanctioning five different offenses was examined. Multivariate models were used to assess the relationships between demographic and ideological orientations, punishment justifications, and punitive attitudes. Finally, separate models were estimated for males and females, and African Americans and Whites to explore whether these factors operated differently across groups. The results suggested that in comparison to demographic factors, justifications were relatively strongly linked to punitive attitudes. These effects were similar across subgroups, but there was an interaction suggesting that the relationship between general deterrence and punitive attitudes varied across gender and race. Implications of the study are discussed.     

The double-design dilemma: political science,parliamentary crisis and disciplinary justifications

Two separate, but inter-linked, dilemmas have highlighted the importance of design-led thinking. First, the crumbling physical fabric of the Palace of Westminster has prompted a multi-billion rebuilding project, which will require the parliamentary studies specialism to engage with questions of design, space, and architecture. Separately, political science more generally has been challenged to utilize the insights of design-thinking and design-practice: a challenge to which it is culturally and methodological ill-equipped. This article considers what a design-led approach to political science looks like in theory, and in practice, in the case study of the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster. This represents a first attempt at how such a fusion could be beneficial for both politics as theory and politics as practice. The main conclusion is that although design-orientated political science is not a panacea for the challenges of modern democratic governance – in intellectual or practical terms – it does appear to offer significant potential in terms of theoretically-informed but solution focused research.     

Avoiding blame when violating traffic rules: the development and validation of the justifications of traffic violations scale

Traffic norms violations are the most common form of law breaking. Our aim was to investigate a factor that might contribute to the massive disobedience to traffic laws, namely drivers’ use of self-legitimization strategies that allow them to transgress them without paying the psychological costs that would follow, such as regret or shame. Using the framework of the self-exoneration mechanisms described by the Social Cognitive Theory, we developed a measure assessing drivers’ strategies of justification of their traffic violations. Across two studies, we tested the psychometric proprieties of the Justifications of Traffic Violations scale (JTVs), its factorial structure, and its construct, external and incremental validity. Results showed that drivers self-exonerate when transgressing traffic laws predominantly through four strategies (Minimizing risks, Displacement of responsibility, Personal needs and Outcome – based justification) that are addressed by the JTVs and that construe one’s refraining from committing deviant driving behaviours as unnecessary, impossible or undesirable. The JTVs and each of its four specific cognitive mechanisms were found to be positively related to the most maladaptive driving styles, as well as to self-reported traffic offences and accidents, suggesting that these self-exonerating strategies favour the instilment and maintenance of habitual deviant behaviours on the road.     

Specifying the information effect: reference points and procedural justifications affect legal attitudes in four survey experiments

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Providing detailed information about sentencing reduces punitive attitudes of laymen (the information effect). We assess whether this extends to modest...     

Judging guilt and accuracy: highly confident eyewitnesses are discounted when they provide featural justifications

Jurors are heavily swayed by confident eyewitnesses. Are they also influenced by how eyewitnesses justify their level of confidence? Here we document a counter-intuitive effect: when eyewitnesses identified a suspect from a lineup with absolute certainty (‘I am completely confident’) and justified their confidence by referring to a visible feature of the accused (‘I remember his nose’), participants judged the suspect as less likely to be guilty than when eyewitnesses identified a suspect with absolute certainty but offered an unobservable justification (‘I would never forget him’) or no justification at all. Moreover, people perceive an eyewitness’s identification as nearly 25% less accurate when the eyewitness has provided a featural justification than an unobservable justification or simply no justification. Even when an eyewitness’s level of confidence is clear because s/he has expressed it numerically (e.g. ‘I am 100% certain’) participants perceive eyewitnesses as not credible (i.e. inaccurate) when the eyewitness has provided a featural justification. However, the effect of featural justifications – relative to a confidence statement only – is maximal when there is an accompanying lineup of faces, moderate when there is a single face and minimal when there is no face at all. The results support our Perceived-Diagnosticity account.     

The legal profession's beautiful myth: surveying the justifications for the lawyer's obligation to perform pro bono work

This article considers some of the substantive and normative claims underlying the performance of pro bono work by lawyers – that lawyers have always done pro bono work and that it is an essential element of what it means to be a lawyer. Following a brief survey of global pro bono activity, the article considers some of the drivers for pro bono work. It identifies three main streams of thought regarding the obligation to perform pro bono work, characterised as the historical arguments, the public service argument, and the ‘lawyer as gatekeeper’ or monopoly argument. Following an analysis of each position, the article concludes that while the historical evidence for a pro bono tradition is not strong, and that the public service and monopoly arguments are open to dispute, there is nonetheless a very strong ‘mythical’ force associated with pro bono work. Its power may thus lie as much in its ability to motivate altruism among lawyers, as it does in any historical or theoretical basis.     

“政府法治论”思想探究——兼与“管理论”、“控权论”、“平衡论”思想比较

行政法的理论基础问题一直是一个备受关注的问题。政府法治论作为行政法理论基础的一种学说有着丰富的内容。作为一个尚处于提出和初步论证阶段的理论,“政府法治论”在不断完善后,必将成为一个日益成熟且具影响力的学说。     

Social control in China: applications of the labeling theory and the reintegrative shaming theory

This article delineates the underlying philosophy and functions of social control in the Chinese society. This topic is particularly interesting because specific control functions are grounded in a unique macro-control system, which is totally different from that typical of Western countries. The article also scrutinizes the implications of labeling theory and reintegrative shaming theory, as they are elaborated in the West, and tests their sensitivity to cross-cultural differences. Although some caveats are in order, the evidence presented here tends to support the reintegrative shaming theory rather than labeling theory.     

Battered women and the state: From the failure of theory to a theory of failure

Within the context of legal reform, the Battered Wife Movement has divided feminists on the question of criminal justice as a desirable component of a feminist agenda. Thus it provides a good example of the dilemmas of developing a feminist theory about the state as the basis for informed practice. In this paper, Currie overviews the way in which the BWM has been transformed from a radical demand for the redistribution of social power into an expansion of current patriarchal institutions. As an example of the institutionalization of feminist issues, however, she rejects explanations of this transformation as simply ideological revision by the state. Rather, Currie notes that it occurs through and not against feminist discourse, meaning that we must acknowledge theory as practice if we are to develop a truly subversive and liberatory discourse within feminist scholarship.