RT Article
T1 The Moderating Effects of Informal Social Control in the Sanctions-Compliance Nexus
JF American journal of criminal justice
VO 39
IS 2
SP 341
OP 357
A1 Worrall, John L.
A2 Els, Nicole
A2 Piquero, Alex R.
A2 TenEyck, Michael
LA English
YR 2014
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1764200543
AB Deterrence researchers have abandoned a one-size-fits-all approach and identified a wide range of individual characteristics (e.g., low self-control, emotional arousal) associated with the decision to offend. Comparatively less attention has been given to the moderating effects of purely situational factors on intentions to break the law. Drawing on social control and rational choice literatures, we utilized a vignette-based survey and asked a sample of young adults to report on their likelihood of driving drunk under conditions of high and low informal social control. We then explored the effects of certainty and severity of punishment on offending likelihood across both conditions. Among deterrable offenders, we found that the relationship between severity and compliance manifested only in the presence of high informal social control. Certainty was significantly and inversely associated with offending likelihood in both high and low informal social control conditions—among both deterrables and the full sample. Implications for deterrence theory are discussed.
K1 Severity
K1 Certainty
K1 Informal Social Control
K1 Deterrability
K1 Deterrence
DO 10.1007/s12103-013-9211-9