RT Article
T1 Why longer prison terms fail to serve a specific deterrent effect: an empirical assessment on the remembered severity of imprisonment
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 23
IS 1
SP 32
OP 55
A1 Raaijmakers, Ellen A. C.
A2 Keijser, Jan Willem de 1968-
A2 Nieuwbeerta, Paul 1964-
A2 Dirkzwager, Anja J. E.
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1735507865
AB For a prison sentence to exert a specific deterrent effect, the ultimate question is that imprisonment is remembered as aversive once the offender is released, and is contemplating future criminal activities. Drawing on insights from social psychology and cognition, this study assessed (1) how inmates remember the severity of their imprisonment following release, and (2) how the severity as experienced while being incarcerated (e.g. the worst or the last moment) affects its recollected aversiveness among a sample of Dutch inmates who were released for approximately six months (n = 696). The findings indicated that the severity as experienced while being incarcerated is strongly related to the severity as recollected following release, net of the duration of confinement. Strikingly, to the extent that the length of imprisonment affected its recollected aversiveness, it did so in the opposite direction than traditional deterrence research presumes. Implications for correctional policy and future research are discussed.
K1 Specific deterrence
K1 Imprisonment
K1 Memories
K1 Severity
K1 Subjective experience
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2016.1217333