NCJ Number
198756
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2002 Pages: 747-771
Date Published
December 2002
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This article evaluates the use of research subjects’ own sets of potential consequences in response to hypothetical offending scenarios.
Abstract
Following a discussion of the utility of subject-generated consequences in research studies, the author justifies using rational choice theory (RCT) to guide this research arguing that RCT in criminology focuses on the effects of cognitive processes. After providing 129 male undergraduate students, in a course on Introduction to Criminology, with a date-rape scenario and a drunk driving scenario in order to examine the ways they constructed their own cost-benefit analysis of each scenario, the author evaluated the students’ consequence items and calculated certainty, severity, and salience scales. Concerning the date-rape scenario, the author found that research subjects believed that they would be less likely to engage in the most sexually coercive behaviors if presented with a situation similar to the one described in the hypothetical scenario. Furthermore, subjects reported informal social costs associated with date rape as deterrents of this offending behavior. Regarding the drunk driving scenario, research subjects reported legal consequences, such as getting arrested, as prime deterrents to committing offending behavior. The author concludes that rational-choice research benefits by allowing research subjects to develop their own set of consequences to hypothesized scenarios. Tables, references