Fear Of Punishment Research Articles

Refocusing International Law on the Quest for Accountability in Africa: The Case Against the “Other” Impunity

This article argues that the harrowing consequences of official corruption for African societies elevate corruption to the level of a breach of the social and economic rights recognized in international human rights law. Yet, unlike in the case of violation of civil and political rights, the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign states seems to provide a convenient excuse for the inaction of the international community in the face of egregious violation of social and economic rights. This inaction, the article argues, is part of the reason why corrupt public officials in Africa perpetrate graft and openly accumulate illicit gains at home and abroad without fear of punishment. The article, therefore, suggests two things: elevation of corruption to the status of a crime in positive international law, and expansion of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to include official corruption and looting of public funds.

Who Broke the Embargo? (It’s the Wrong Question!)

Who Broke the Embargo? (It’s the Wrong Question!)

“I Am Moral, But You Are Deterred”: Differential Attributions About Why People Obey the Law1

This research examined the different attributions that individuals make for law‐abiding behavior by different people. Experiment 1 reveals that individuals believe that they and other highly moral people are motivated to obey laws because of internal reasons (e.g., laws reflect valued rules and moral behavior), whereas they believe that criminals are motivated by external reasons (e.g., fear of punishment). However, Experiment 2 shows that even some criminals are seen as motivated to obey laws regarding particular types of crimes because of internal factors. Experiment 3 replicates these general findings using a between‐subjects design. Finally, Experiment 4 shows that individuals believe that they are motivated to obey laws regarding minor transgressions (e.g., speed limits) for both internal and external reasons. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for both psychological theory and social policy.

Facing guilt: Role of negative affectivity, need for reparation, and fear of punishment in leading to prosocial behaviour and aggression

The present study aims to further corroborate and to extend the scope of previous findings regarding the path of influence between negative affectivity, need for reparation and fear of punishment when examining the determinants and the motivational components of guilt. Data were collected from three different European countries (i.e. Italy, Hungary, and the Czech Republic). About 1100 young adolescents were involved in the research. The generalizability of a nomological network linking individual differences in Negative Affectivity to Need for Reparation, Fear of Punishment, Prosocial Behaviour, and Aggression has been investigated across countries and gender, by means of structural equation modelling. Need for Reparation turns out to be positively related to Prosocial Behaviour and negatively related to Aggression. Fear for Punishment turns out to be positively related to Aggression and negatively related to Prosocial Behaviour, with the exception of Hungary. Alternative paths of influence among considered variables have been examined. Practical implications for prevention and education are underlined. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Facing guilt: Role of negative affectivity, need for reparation, and fear of punishment in leading to prosocial behaviour and aggression

The present study aims to further corroborate and to extend the scope of previous findings regarding the path of influence between negative affectivity, need for reparation and fear of punishment when examining the determinants and the motivational components of guilt. Data were collected from three different European countries (i.e. Italy, Hungary, and the Czech Republic). About 1100 young adolescents were involved in the research. The generalizability of a nomological network linking individual differences in Negative Affectivity to Need for Reparation, Fear of Punishment, Prosocial Behaviour, and Aggression has been investigated across countries and gender, by means of structural equation modelling. Need for Reparation turns out to be positively related to Prosocial Behaviour and negatively related to Aggression. Fear for Punishment turns out to be positively related to Aggression and negatively related to Prosocial Behaviour, with the exception of Hungary. Alternative paths of influence among considered variables have been examined. Practical implications for prevention and education are underlined. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Confessions: A Model of Officials' Perspectives on Accepting Gifts from Clients in Post-Communist Europe

There is widespread criticism of the behaviour of junior officials in post-communist Europe where they are often accused of treating citizens unfairly and soliciting presents or bribes to solve citizens' problems. To get the perspective of officials themselves we interviewed 1307 junior officials and state employees in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. This paper focuses on their willingness to accept gifts from clients, their confessions to having done so, and the factors that lead some officials to accept gifts while others do not – factors such as occupational bargaining power and the (related) frequency of offers from clients, economic pressures, national and institutional cultures, fear of punishment, and moral perspectives on charging clients for favours. Economic pressures make officials more inclined to feel that they ‘could not afford to refuse’ gifts, but this motivation is only weakly related to actual behaviour. Occupational bargaining power and the frequency of offers from clients make them more likely to ‘welcome’ gifts or accept them ‘out of politeness' – and these less excusable motivations are more strongly related to actual gift-taking.

Reporting of medical errors: time for a reality check

Earlier this summer an expert group chaired by the Chief Medical Officer in the UK produced a comprehensive and thoughtful analysis of the current unacceptable state of identifying, analysing, and learning from medical mishaps.1 Although this report, provocatively named An Organisation with a Memory , applies specifically to the UK National Health Service (NHS), its analysis—and prescriptions—apply to health organisations the world over. The report embraces the insight from industrial safety research pioneered in the UK by Reason and others that human errors typically result, not from carelessness or incompetence, but from systems failures that are sometimes complex and difficult to analyse and correct.2 The call for better reporting, a more open culture, better mechanisms for ensuring that necessary changes are made, and a much wider appreciation of the value of the systems approach is welcome. The cornerstone of the recommendations is a greatly enhanced system of national reporting of adverse events. Although the benefits of such a programme seem self-evident, two questions must be addressed before proceeding with such a plan—namely: “Why aren't these events being reported now?” and “What would be the cost of such a system?” Charles Billings, architect of the highly successful Aviation Safety Reporting System in the USA, has pointed out that there are two major reasons why people don't report adverse events: fear and lack of belief that reporting will lead to improvement.3 Fear is multidimensional—fear of embarrassment, fear of punishment of self, fear of punishment of others, fear …

Peer conflict avoidance: associations with loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance.

Failure to resolve peer conflict is associated with children's reports of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance. Although these relationships are well established, researchers have not examined the association between the avoidance of peer conflict and various adjustment characteristics. The current study examined the association between avoidance of conflict and measures of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance for 59 pupils in Grade 4 (31 boys and 28 girls) and 47 in Grade 8 (22 boys and 25 girls). Volunteers indicated that conflict avoidance based on autonomy, e.g., independence issues, and interpersonal issues, e.g., closeness and cohesion, was associated with scores on loneliness for boys and girls, respectively. Conflict avoidance for emotional and physical well-being and fear of punishment was associated with increased reports of loneliness and social anxiety for children in Grade 4.

Response to “Dubious Premises— Evil Conclusions: Moral Reasoning at the Nuremberg Trials” by Edmund D. Pellegrino and David C. Thomasma (CQ Vol 9, No 2)

Because we are often nagged by the thought that we might not have behaved any differently than those good citizens whose respect for the law and fear of punishment led them to support the Nazi regime, we are fascinated with the behavior of ordinary Germans. Careful to first strip away the pathological explanations of German behavior, Pellegrino and Thomasma ask simply whether ordinary Germans could have reasoned and, by implication, acted differently. Although their affirmative answer is consistent with the activism we have all come to demand of the Germans, it is not clear whether we, ourselves, can lay full claim to the moral high ground.

Peer-initiated overdose resuscitation: fellow drug users could be mobilised to implement resuscitation

Research interviews about overdose experiences were conducted with 115 patients attending a methadone maintenance clinic in south London, UK. While almost half (49.6%) reported having experienced overdose personally (on an average of four occasions each), almost all (97.4%) reported that they had witnessed overdoses (on an average of six occasions each). This represents a total of 706 overdoses witnessed, of which 106 had resulted in fatalities. The vast majority of patients (86/97) reported that they had taken actions when they had witnessed overdoses with those acting taking an average of nearly threee different actions on the last occasion on which they had seen someone overdosing. Most respondents reported that they would be willing to act, even if they did not know the overdose victim personally and that they had not been deterred from acting by the previous response from the emergency services. Fear of punishment was not a strong deterrent from acting certainly not for this sample, with many participants also expressing an interest in expanding their repertoire of overdose interventions, for example through training in resuscitation techniques and by keeping naloxone at home for use in overdose emergency.

"Spontaneous" Interethnic Order: The Emergence of Collective, Path-Dependent Cooperation

Can “spontaneous,” decentralized interethnic cooperation emerge among ethnic groups whose members heavily discount future interethnic relations and do not fear punishment for interethnic noncooperation? Why is it that once the interaction between two ethnic groups evolves along a certain (cooperative or conflictual) path it sometimes becomes harder for the interacting groups to reverse course and seek alternative paths? The answer to these two questions lies in the fact that individual members not only are always calculative and could hence act opportunistically, but also are interdependent and can learn from one another. Because the members of interacting groups operate interdependently they thereby create collective nonlinear path dependence. Using a social game (within evolutionary game theory) the article shows counterintuitively that the emergence of collective, nonlinear path dependence within and across ethnic groups whose members heavily discount the future and face no punishment for interethnic noncooperation makes “spontaneous” decentralized interethnic cooperation a long-run equilibrium. Collective cooperation can thus develop path-dependently among ethnic groups without a Damocles' sword of any sort hanging over their members' heads, even when most individuals are shortsighted and opportunistic.

Government is Good for You

There is an argument that government cannot be good for individuals because it causes them to act through fear of punishment, hence for non-moral reasons. The obvious responses of accepting the conclusion (anarchism) and denying the premiss about moral motivation (utilitarianism) are first considered. Then the strategy of accepting the premiss but denying the conclusion is pursued at greater length. Some arguments of T. H. Green and B. Bosanquet which attempt to do this are considered before an independent resolution is proposed.

Ends and Beginnings

Ends and Beginnings

Individual and institutional defences against primitive anxieties: Counselling in prison

This paper describes a counsellor's attempts to understand the unconscious dynamics affecting the process of counselling women in prison. The social system of the prison serves to defend both prisoners and officers against powerful anxieties about the potential for sadistic attack originating from primitive states of mind, that is persecution, helplessness and destructiveness. The implications of the rigid means of defence are considered, and die role of unconscious guilt motivating the need for external punishment is briefly explored. Emphasis is placed on the role of splitting and projection in the management of potentially overwhelming feelings of guilt, and fear of punishment. The author develops the premise that there is in effect an institutional requirement that prisoners remain in the paranoid-schizoid position because of the feared consequences were they to experience depressive anxieties.

COLLEGE CHEATING IN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES

This paper reports the results of a survey onacademic dishonesty given to samples of 392 American and276 Japanese college students in 1994 and 1995. Our datarevealed both cross-cultural differences and similarities in cheating behavior andattitudes. Compared to American students, Japanesestudents reported a higher incidence rate of cheating onexams, a greater tendency to neutralize (i.e., justify) cheating, and a greater passivity in theirreactions to the observed cheating of others. Amongcheaters of both nationalities, Japanese students ratedsocial stigma and fear of punishment as less effective in deterring cheating than did Americanstudents. Our data also revealed cross-culturalsimilarities. Among noncheaters of both nationalities,guilt was the most effective deterrent. Among cheatersof both nationalities, fear of punishment was the mosteffective deterrent. And students of both cultures,cheaters and noncheaters alike, viewed social stigma asthe least effective deterrent to cheating. In both cultures, most students react to cheating byignoring it, about one-third react by resenting it, andactive reactions (i.e., reporting the cheating orconfronting the cheater) were seldom reported.Explanations for cross-cultural differences are suggested,and implications of these findings for efforts to reducecheating are discussed.

DEATH ANXIETY IN YOUNG ADULTS AS A FUNCTION OF RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION, GUILT, AND SEPERATION-INDIVIDUATION CONFLICT

Seventy undergraduate participants between the ages of 19 and 30 were assessed with measures of death anxiety, religious orientation, separation-individuation conflict, and two dimensions of guilt (need for reparation and fear of punishment). A multiple regression with death anxiety as the criterion variable revealed the following variables, listed in order of their contributions to R2, to be significant predictors: fear of punishment, extrinsic religious orientation, need for reparation, and separation-individuation conflict. A model of death anxiety for young adults that addresses the developmental tasks of this stage is proposed.

Deterrence and homeless male street youths

The study explores the effects of the threat of formal punishment on the criminal behaviour of homeless male street youths paying particular attention to how these threats are shaped by their living conditions and other factors in their lifestyles. Results reveal that while many street youths fear legal sanctions, more serious offenders do not. Instead their fear of punishment is reduced by their poverty, drug use, association with criminal peers, and missing normative constraints. The study finds that serious street youth offenders are immersed in a lifestyle where crime, drugs, and criminal peers feed off of one another isolating them from conventional society. The findings suggest that traditional models of deterrence must be reexamined when dealing with extremely “at risk” groups.

Legal and social control of alcohol-impaired driving in California: 1983-1994.

This research was designed to provide information on the legal and social forces that influence change in control of alcohol-impaired driving. Attitudes, perceptions and behaviors concerning drinking and driving for California drivers in 1994 (n = 608) were compared to similar information collected from California drivers in 1983 and 1986 (n = 291) through random-digit-dialing telephone interviews. Self-reported drinking-driving violations showed a substantial decline, paralleling the well-documented drop in alcohol-related traffic crashes during this time span. A large reduction in drinking before driving was reported for all age groups, men and women, and for both heavy drinkers and light drinkers. There was evidence of an increase in the levels of both general deterrence and general prevention. Increased external control was reflected in greater knowledge of drinking-driving laws and trends toward an increased expectation that violations would be followed by unpleasant consequences. Strong gains in creating a social norm for control of alcohol-impaired driving were indicated by perceptions that friends and relatives were more likely to disapprove of driving after drinking, observations of more control of drinking by drivers at occasions where alcohol is served and an increase in the view that it is morally wrong to drive after heavy drinking. California has made substantial progress in efforts to control alcohol-impaired driving, through increases in both general deterrence (fear of punishment) and general prevention (moral inhibitions and socialization of preventive habits), especially the latter.

A systems analysis approach to medical error.

Evidence from various sources indicates that a substantial number of hospitalized patients suffer treatment-caused injuries. Most of these injuries result from errors. Yet physicians and other health professionals have been reluctant to admit and address the problem of errors, both because of feelings of guilt and from the desire to avoid punishment or disapproval by colleagues. Research in cognitive psychology and human factors has shown that most errors result from defects in the systems in which we work. These are failures in the design of processes, tasks, training, and conditions of work that make errors more likely. Meaningful reduction of errors requires correction of these systems failures. Barriers to reduction of errors include the complexity of health care systems, difficulties in information access, tolerance of stylistic practices, and fear of punishment that inhibits reporting. Most institutions also lack effective methods for detecting and quantifying errors. Significant improvements in error reduction will require major commitments by organizational leadership and the recognition that errors are evidence of deficiencies in systems, not deficiencies in people.

THE DETERRENT EFFECT OF TERRORIST INCIDENTS ON THE RATES OF LUGGAGE THEFT IN RAILWAY AND UNDERGROUND STATIONS

The study reported here considers the deterrent effect of terrorist incidents on the rates of luggage theft in railway and underground stations. We selected for our task a well-publicized major terrorist incident that took place on 18 February 1991. The analysis of the data shows that in the periods immediately following the terrorist incident there was a sharp but short-lasting decline in the number of cases of luggage theft. This indicates that either increased police vigilance, or the fear of potential thieves that items of luggage might contain explosives, produces a definite if short dived deterrent effect. One of the most debated and controversial issues in modern criminal justice policy is that of general deterrence, i.e. the inhibiting effects of sanctions on the illegal activity of potential criminals. (Zimring and Hawkins 1973; Beyleveld 1979, 1980; Tittle 1980; Walker 1991). The underlying assumption of general deterrence theory and associated policy is that individuals calculate the risk involved in criminal activity and refrain from it, because of their fear of punishment. Used in this sense, deterrence assumes a rational calculation of benefits and risks, including the probability of detection as well as the severity and swiftness of punishment by the potential offender. Indeed, utilitarian writers and economic and modern classical theorists argue that the purpose of criminal justice is to create an organized system of official threats sufficient to outweigh the perceived benefits of committing a crime (Bentham 1789; Posner 1985; Walker 1991). Opponents of the validity of the concept of general deterrence, on the other hand, dispute the thesis that potential criminals calculate risks in a rational manner and reject the view that the perception of the danger that they will be apprehended and punished for their misbehaviour has any significant deterrent effect. They argue that people tend to commit offences almost irrespective of the risk involved.1 The identification and measurement of deterrence are notoriously difficult for researchers, because of the methodological and ethical problems involved. As Ash worth points out, satisfactory empirical evidence is difficult to obtain since 'the condi tions must be such that non-offending can safely be ascribed to the deterrent effect of the sanction rather than other factors' (Ashworth 1994).