Experiments on Deviance With Special Reference to Dishonesty (From Criminology Review Yearbook, Volume 2, P 49-94, 1980, by Egon Bittner and Sheldon L Messinger - See NCJ-70397)

• NCJ Number: 70399
• Author(s): D P Farrington
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 46 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted from Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, V 12, 1979, P 207-252

Annotation

Experimental research, a method seldom or never used by criminologists, is a customary tool for psychologists and can be applied to the investigation of deviance.

Abstract

The deviance field is dominated by nonexperimental research, chiefly sociology: correlations between deviance and other factors can be established by such research, but causal relationships and a choice among alternative explanations of observed findings can only be achieved by experimentation. Within the practical, ethical, and legal limitations imposed by such experimentation, a British psychologist devised some experiments with high internal validity (i.e., allocating subjects to conditions) and high external validity (i.e., conducted in realistic field settings with members of the general public as subjects). Based on the operational definition of deviance as deviant behavior which is prohibited by the criminal law and which violates other widely recognized moral norms of Western society at the present time, experimentation was concentrated mainly on less controversial forms of deviance, such as dishonesty (e.g., cheating, lying, and stealing). In some experiments it was possible to give the subjects the opportunity to commit deviant acts under controlled conditions (e.g., 10-year old boys were told to press a telegraph key in order to obtain a marble, exchangeable for a prize, only when a stimulus appeared on the screen: this cheating, or rule-breaking experiment, was observed through a one-way mirror). In other experiments, the experimenter pretended to pick up money in the street and asking passers-by if they had dropped it or gave students and school children the opportunity to cheat at exams or steal money they were asked to sort. It was concluded that field experimentation with members of the public unwittingly participating as subjects was likely to have the greatest internal and external validity of any research method. In addition, the investigation of immediate influences and situational factors in the experiments on dishonesty suggests that crime prevention efforts aimed at changing such situational factors may be more successful than traditional efforts aimed at individuals. Approximately 235 references are appended.