Specific Deterrence, Rational Choice, and Decision Heuristics: Applications in Juvenile Justice

• NCJ Number: 131932
• Journal: Social Science Quarterly Volume: 71 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1990) Pages: 585-601
• Author(s): A L Schneider; L Ervin
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 17 pages
• Grant Number(s): SES-8520176
• Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from 867 adjudicated juvenile offenders whose cases were handled in 6 U.S. juvenile courts were examined with a decision heuristics approach in which policies were linked to perceptions of certainty and severity, as well as normative orientations. Perceptions were related to intentions to continue committing offenses and to actual subsequent contacts with the juvenile or adult justice systems.

Abstract

The findings indicated that juvenile offenders in all six jurisdictions did not reduce their propensity to commit offenses as a result of their perceptions of the certainty or severity of punishment. An unexpected result was that, while stated intentions of foregoing criminal behavior were affected by perceptions of certainty and severity of punishment, normative aspects of self-identification were more important in understanding those intentions and the subsequent offense rates of juvenile delinquents. The study suggests that theories of behavior need to incorporate a more explicit understanding of decision heuristics. Punishment-oriented policies, favored by many public officials, may initiate unexpected effects on self-image and other values, leading to an actual increase in crime rates. 3 tables, 1 figure, and 31 references (Author abstract modified)