Perceptions of crime seriousness in eight African-American communities: The influence of individual, environmental, and crime-based factors

Vogel, Brenda; Meeker, James W.

doi:10.1080/07418820100094911

Cited by 11 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…One potential mediating factor not examined in this research includes the perceived seriousness of crime on the part of juvenile victims. For example, when persons are asked to assess the severity of crimes, extant research indicates that younger persons are more likely than older persons to perceive many crimes as being of a lesser seriousness (Kwan et al 2002;Vogel and Meeker 2001). Greenburg and Ruback (1985:602) outline a victim decision-making model in which the second stage of their model is "determining the seriousness of the crime."…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Disparity between Juvenile and Adult Victims in Notifying the Police: A Study of Mediating Variables

Watkins

2005

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

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Extant research has found that crimes against juveniles are substantially less likely than crimes against adults to come to the attention of the police. Few studies, however, have attempted to systematically examine variation in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims. With assault and robbery data from the 1994-2001 National Crime Victimization Survey, this research explores this issue by addressing whether victim, offender, and situational characteristics of crime are effective in mediating the disparity in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims. Current findings indicate that the relationship between juvenile victims and police reporting was only attenuated, in part, after controlling for school victimizations and crimes perpetrated by juvenile offenders. Current findings also reveal that distinguishing crimes reported to nonpolice officials had no effect, attenuating variation in police reporting between juvenile and adult victims.

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Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Disparity between Juvenile and Adult Victims in Notifying the Police: A Study of Mediating Variables

Watkins

2005

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

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“…Furthermore, they found that age had a positive impact on ratings for most offences. These findings correspond with those of Vogel and Meeker (2001) who found that men and youth were more lenient than women and older individuals. Higher levels of socio-economic status (SES) and education resulted in lower levels of perceived harmfulness, although these measures were only significant for certain offences (Adriaenssen, Karstedt, at al., 2019).…”

Section: Perceptions Of Crime Seriousnesssupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Higher levels of socio-economic status (SES) and education resulted in lower levels of perceived harmfulness, although these measures were only significant for certain offences (Adriaenssen, Karstedt, at al., 2019). Vogel and Meeker (2001) indicate that community crime rates and city of residence also impacted perceptions of severity. Interestingly, however, victimization is not always relevant to ratings of seriousness.…”

Section: Perceptions Of Crime Seriousnessmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, ratings of severity for non-violent crimes and corporate crimes are less consistent and seem to be influenced by the knowledge of the individual and the complexity of the crime. Furthermore, research has indicated some influence of respondent characteristics such as age, gender, education, and SES on levels of perceived seriousness (Rossi et al, 1974;Adriaenssen, Karstedt, et al, 2019;Vogel & Meeker, 2001). As such it is important to look at possible respondent characteristics that could influence perceived levels of seriousness and to account for these variables when designing research on perceptions of seriousness.…”

Section: Perceptions Of Crime Seriousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors suggest that one should also consider how student characteristics such as socio-economic status, ethnicity, and political ideology may influence the choice of major and the subsequent levels of punitiveness (Ridener & Kuehn, 2017;Kuehn et al, 2018). Given the impact of respondent characteristics, such as SES, on levels of perceived seriousness (Adriaenssen, Karstedt, et al, 2019;Vogel & Meeker, 2001) the suggestion that it may also impact punitive attitudes bears some validity. Considering this possibility, it is essential to control for those demographic characteristics that can be measured and that may influence perceptions and attitudes towards crime.…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Punishmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Perceptions of Crime Seriousness and Punitive Attitudes in Post-Secondary Students

Weetering¹,

Wilhelmina²

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Public perceptions of crime seriousness and attitudes towards the punishment of crime stem from the social norms and values that shape society and are informed by ways of knowing about crime. Located within a social constructionist paradigm, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of post-secondary education, crime type and crime representation on perceptions of crime severity and punitive attitudes for different crime types. A sample of 971 students from the University of Winnipeg completed an online questionnaire measuring perceptions of crime severity for one-line crime descriptions as well as crime scenarios based on actual court data. Results show that both wrongfulness and harmfulness are strong predictors of perceived seriousness. As predicted, violent crimes ranked highest on measures of seriousness, wrongfulness, and harmfulness, and received the most severe sentencing recommendations. While the level of education completed had no significant difference on perceptions of crime severity, differences between fields of study showed significance. Comparisons between responses to the one-line crime descriptions and the crime scenarios revealed significantly stronger severity ratings for the scenarios than for the one-line descriptions although the ranking of crimes remained similar. Findings suggest that universal notions of wrongfulness and harmfulness exist that influence perceptions of seriousness and are resistant to change. Perceptions towards crimes are informed by a socially constructed reality of crime that shapes our knowledge of crime. Understanding the underlying factors that influence perceptions and attitudes towards crime may shed new light on the social approaches to dealing with crime and provides new insights into crime control practices and government crime policy. Finally, results also emphasize the importance of reflecting on the matter of crime representation in academic research.

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Size matters: Standard errors in the application of null hypothesis significance testing in criminology and criminal justice

2006

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Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) has been a mainstay of the social sciences for empirically examining hypothesized relationships, and the main approach for establishing the importance of empirical results. NHST is the foundation of classical or frequentist statistics. The approach is designed to test the probability of generating the observed data if no relationship exists between the dependent and independent variables of interest, recognizing that the results will vary from sample to sample. This paper is intended to evaluate the state of the criminological and criminal justice literature with respect to the correct application of NHST. We apply a modified version of the instrument used in two reviews of the economics literature by McCloskey and Ziliak to code 82 articles in criminology and criminal justice. We have selected three sources of papers: Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and a recent review of experiments in criminal justice by Farrington and Welsh. We find that most researchers provide the basic information necessary to understand effect sizes and analytical significance in tables which include descriptive statistics and some standardized measure of size (e.g., betas, odds ratios). On the other hand, few of the articles mention statistical power and even fewer discuss the standards by which a finding would be considered large or small. Moreover, less than half of the articles distinguish between analytical significance and statistical significance, and most articles used the term Fsignificance_ in ambiguous ways.

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Perceptions of crime seriousness in eight African-American communities: The influence of individual, environmental, and crime-based factors

Cited by 11 publications

References 41 publications

Examining the Disparity between Juvenile and Adult Victims in Notifying the Police: A Study of Mediating Variables

Examining the Disparity between Juvenile and Adult Victims in Notifying the Police: A Study of Mediating Variables

Perceptions of Crime Seriousness and Punitive Attitudes in Post-Secondary Students

Size matters: Standard errors in the application of null hypothesis significance testing in criminology and criminal justice

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