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Perceptual Research on General Deterrence: A Critical Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Kirk R. Williams  and
Richard Hawkins
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Abstract

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Recent perceptual studies of general deterrence have been guided by an unnecessarily narrow conception of general deterrence, despite the methodological advances in this type of research. These studies, moreover, have failed to recognize the complexity of the perceptual processes that intervene between the threat or experience of legal sanctions and behavioral outcomes. Consequently, the conclusions drawn from the findings about the process of general deterrence are questionable. This paper critically reviews perceptual studies of general deterrence with a view toward expanding the scope of deterrence theory and stimulating research in new directions. Suggestions are made about the kinds of data and analyses needed to test such theory more adequately.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , 1986 , pp. 545 - 572
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 7–11, 1984. We would like to thank Robert Kidder, the anonymous reviewers of the Law & Society Review, and the following people (in alphabetical order) for their many helpful comments and criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper: Angela Browne, Jack Gibbs, Harold Grasmick, Colin Loftin, Joan McCord, Bill Minor, Murray A. Straus, Charles Tittle, and Susan White. We also would like to thank Deena Peschke for her typing assistance.

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