NCJ Number
72318
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 71 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1980) Pages: 325-335
Date Published
1980
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined the variables of legal punishment, social disapproval, and internalization of legal norms to see if these variables have simple additive effects on involvement in illegal behavior, or whether the inhibitory effectiveness of one depends on the level of another.
Abstract
The study incorporated all previous measurement refinements and all previous hypotheses concerning multivariate relationships between the three inhibitory variables and involvement in illegal behavior. After a review of measurement issues in individual-level deterrence research and a summary of current knowledge about the multivariate hypotheses, data are presented from a survey of a large urban community in the Southwest. A random sample of 400 adults were interviewed and information was gathered about respondents' involvement in eight illegal activities. The purpose of the research was to determine if each of the three mechanisms of control made an independent, significant contribution to the explanation of variation in individuals' involvement in illegal behavior. Findings confirmed that the three independent variables appeared to constitute a concise and probably exhaustive set of factors which inhibited illegal behavior. Researchers interested in deterrence must now link these inhibitory variables with the various theories concerning motivational factors such as anomie, conformity to deviant subcultural norms, and blocked opportunities. About 60 percent of the variance in illegal behavior remains unexplained by the set of three inibitory variables. Most of this variance is probably attributed to variations in levels of motivation to violate the law among the respondents in the sample. Many who scored low on measures of illegal behavior probably did so because they lacked the motivation to violate the law. In the absence of such motivation, inhibitory factors should be irrelevant in the production of conformity to legal norms. It is suggested that the inhibitory model actually applies only to those people who are motivated to commit illegal acts. A total of 42 footnotes and 4 tables are included.