Punishment: Its Severity and Certainty

Certainty of Punishment versus Severity of Punishment: An Experimental Investigation

Compliance with laws and regulations depends on the expected penalty facing violators. The expected penalty depends on both the probability of punishment and the severity of the punishment if caught. A key question in the economics of crime literature is whether increasing the probability of punishment is a more effective deterrent than an equivalent increase in the severity of punishment. This...

The Interplay of Certainty, Severity, and Celerity in Punishment for Wrongdoing

This is a conference version and should not be cited or published in any form without permission from the authors. ABSTRACT While the deterrent effect of certainty and severity of punishment in addition to the interaction between the two has been evaluated for various criminal behaviors, few have assessed the influence of the celerity of punishment, or the additive influence of the interactions...

Chapter Two: Impact of the Sentencing Guidelines on the Certainty and Severity of Punishment

The text and legislative history of the Sentencing Reform Act [SRA], reviewed in Chapter One, make clear that the SRA aimed to increase the certainty and severity of punishment by eliminating parole and increasing sentencing severity for some crimes. Congress instructed the Commission to ensure that “the guidelines reflect the fact that, in many cases, current sentences do not accurately reflec...

The deterrent effect of the perceived certainty and severity of punishment: A review of the evidence and issues

The relationships among perceived peer acceptance of sexual aggression, punishment certainty, and sexually aggressive behavior.

Researching the correlates of men's sexually aggressive behavior (i.e., verbal coercion and rape) is critical to both understanding and preventing sexual aggression. This study examined 120 men who completed an anonymous online questionnaire. The study aimed to determine the relative importance of two potential correlates of men's self-reported use of sexual aggression: (a) perceptions that mal...