NCJ Number
41420
Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY AND PENOLOGY Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (FEBRUARY 1977) Pages: 17-29
Date Published
1977
Length
13 pages
Annotation
THE EXPERIMENTAL WORK DESCRIBED IN THIS PAPER WAS CONCERNED WITH AN ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP A SCALE OF OFFENSE SERIOUSNESS FOR THE EVALUATION OF PENAL TREATMENT.
Abstract
EXPERIMENTS REPORTED IN THE ARTICLE WERE ADDRESSED TO THE PROBLEM OF SELECTING HIGH CONSENSUS OFFENSES AND MEASURING THE LEVEL OF THAT CONSENSUS. THE EXPERIMENTS WERE UNDERTAKEN TO SELECT THE OFFENSES WHOSE RELATIVE SERIOUSNESS WAS AGREED UPON BY ALL OR NEARLY ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE WHOSE JUDGMENTS WERE ELICITED. JUDGMENTS WERE GIVEN FROM THREE GROUPS OF SUBJECTS -- UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, PROBATION OFFICERS, AND MAGISTRATES. THE AUTHORS CONCLUDED THAT THE USEFULNESS OF ANY SCALE OF OFFENSE SERIOUSNESS IS LIKELY TO HAVE AS ITS LIMITING FACTOR THE DEGREE OF DETAIL OF OFFENSE DESCRIPTION SUPPLIED IN CRIMINAL RECORDS. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT)...KAP