David Indermaur

Public perception of sentencing in Perth, Western Australia

The present study replicates some of the key findings of earlier “revisionist” studies of public attitude towards the punishment of offenders: 554 Perth residents were interviewed from a sample frame of 800. Most respondents overestimated the amount of crime which involves violence, and tended to see the murder rate as “increasing” when it is not. Most (76%) said that sentences “are not severe enough”. However, 80% of these reported that they were thinking of a violent criminal when answering that question. It is suggested that general questions about crime may essentially reflect respondent concern about violence. The second part of the interview involved a split sample designed to test differences in responses to two types of item presentation. Approximately half the sample (288) were asked to chose a penalty they considered appropriate for three offences. The other half were given brief descriptions of the offence and the offender and then asked to choose an appropriate penalty. The minimum sentences were significantly lower for the group given the case descriptions. The results are interpreted as suggesting that public responses to questions of punishment are largely influenced by stereotypes. A good deal of acceptance was found for proposed alternatives to imprisonment. The most popular (75%) said “year, in all or most cases”) was the use of attendance centres. Most respondents also favoured programmes for fine defaulters, on-the-spot fines for petty offences and a day fine system “in all or most cases”. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of survey methodology and sentencing reform.

Sentencing and public confidence: results from a national Australian survey on public opinions towards sentencing

This paper examines the critical issue of public confidence in sentencing, and presents findings from Phase I of an Australia-wide sentencing and public confidence project. Phase I comprised a nationally representative telephone survey of 6005 participants. The majority of respondents expressed high levels of punitiveness and were dissatisfied with sentences imposed by the courts. Despite this, many were strongly supportive of the use of alternatives to imprisonment for a range of offences. These nuanced views raise questions regarding the efficacy of gauging public opinion using opinion poll style questions; indeed the expected outcome from this first phase of the four phase sentencing and public confidence project. The following phases of this project, reported on elsewhere, examined the effects of various interventions on the robustness and nature of these views initially expressed in a standard ‘top of the head’ opinion poll.

Fear of Cyber-Identity Theft and Related Fraudulent Activity

Identity theft and related fraudulent activities affect approximately one in twenty-five adults each year across western societies. The Internet provides a new avenue for obtaining identity tokens and identifying information and increases the scale on which identity theft can be perpetrated. Recent research has suggested that fear of these types of crimes now matches or exceeds the fear of traditional place-based crimes, and has the potential to curtail online activities and hinder the further development of e-commerce applications. In this article, we conduct exploratory research identifying predictors of fear of cyber-identity theft and related fraudulent activities, based on the analysis of items included in the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (2007). Fear was predicted by a generalized fear of crime component and a specific Internet exposure component. Traditional predictors of fear of crime were insignificant or weak predictors, highlighting the need for further research.

Signed Consent Forms in Criminological Research: Protection for Researchers and Ethics Committees but a Threat to Research Participants?

The use of signed consent forms is mandated by most human research ethics committees and social science ethics codes. In this article we argue that the use of signed consent forms in criminological research provides protection for researchers and ethics committees by providing documentation that informed consent has been obtained, but poses a threat to potential research participants, especially offenders. Consent forms constitute a record of participation in a research project, providing the potential for research documentation to be subpoenaed. This is a threat to the offenders future wellbeing in research where offenders are asked to report on illegal activities. Further, there is a general reluctance among offenders to sign consent forms, creating a barrier to participating in research and potentially affecting response rates and representativeness of samples. Concerns over confidentiality may result in limited disclosure and self-protecting responses. We recommend the development of alternative meth...

A matter of judgement: The effect of information and deliberation on public attitudes to punishment

The idea of reducing public punitiveness through providing information and encouraging deliberation has attracted considerable interest. However, there remains no solid evidence of durable changes in attitude. The study presented here provides a test of the hypothesis that information combined with deliberation can affect general measures of punitiveness, confidence in the courts and acceptance of alternatives to imprisonment (the three dependent variables). The study involved a pre-test, post-test experimental design. Participants were randomly allocated to either an intervention group or a control condition. Statistically significant changes in the dependent variables were observed immediately following the intervention but these changes were not sustained when measured at follow-up nine months later. Further, at the time of the follow-up the differences between the control group scores and the intervention group scores were not significantly different. The observed changes immediately following the intervention are seen to be a function of the changed relationship of the respondent to the task. The implications of the results for integrating public perspectives into policy are discussed. It is argued that rather than a focus on public education, a more productive direction is to focus on the way the public is engaged on matters concerning punishment.

Intrafamilial adolescent sex offenders: family functioning and treatment

Abstract This paper examines the families of intrafamilial adolescent sex offenders attending a community-based treatment program. Qualitative and quantitative data were used to measure family functioning before and after 12 months of treatment. Families were characterised as disorganised, uncommunicative and adversarial. Most of the young offenders, many of whom were themselves victims of abuse, came from step, blended or foster families. Seventy-four percent had no, or minimal, contact with at least one biological parent. Conflicts between family members were rarely resolved satisfactorily. After treatment, interviewees reported better family communication and fewer conflicts; there were also significant improvements on a measure of family functioning. Adolescents and their parents reported improvements in self-control, social skills and emotional regulation. Improvements were more likely when at least one parent was engaged in treatment. These findings emphasise the need for treatment to target parents as well as the adolescent offender when intrafamilial sexual abuse occurs.

What predicts punitiveness? An examination of predictors of punitive attitudes towards offenders in Australia

A widespread public preference for harsher sentencing (punitiveness) has been documented in a range of national and international studies. The present study examines the relative predictive power of a set of factors most commonly linked with punitiveness. This study is based on the responses given in the largest Australian survey to date of public attitudes to punishment (N = 6005). A combined hierarchical multiple regression model comprising demographic variables, media usage variables, and crime salience variables accounted for a significant 30% of variance in scores for punitiveness. The three variables that emerged as the strongest predictors of punitive attitudes were: perceptions of crime levels; education; and reliance on tabloid/commercial media for news and information. The results have direct implications for how we understand the persistent public preference for punishment and what might be required to ameliorate or respond to that preference.

Crime seriousness ratings: The relationship of information accuracy and general attitudes in Western Australia†:

A sample 278 Western Australians completed questions asking them to suggest penalties for 27 “crime vignettes” based on a cross cultural study by Scott and Althakeb (1977). A moral indignation score (average number of days in gaol) was then calculated and compared to other factors such as information about Criminal Justice, general punitive or non-punitive attitude and demographic factors such as location, sex, age, marital status, education, political status, etc. Overall results showed considerable variance in response even with crimes defined as violent or very serious. The sample produced scores (averaged for all crimes) higher than for other comparable data. Non punitive and punitive groups were highly correlated with moral indignation. Information while statistically significant was not a useful predictor of moral indignation score. Assumed penalties also were not a useful predictor of attitude or moral indignation. On average, assumed penalties were approximately half the suggested penalty, and was independent of suggested sentences. The survey concludes noting the high degree of variance observed, except in those crimes defined victimless (eg suicide, prostitution, homosexuality, abortion) where suggested penalty was predominantly no penalty and emphasizing the role the media played in the development and formation of attitudes to crime. The study of criminology depends directly on the labelling and definition of certain behaviour as crime. This identification process is often assumed to reflect community attitudes to these behaviours and is the goal of moral indignation studies, Scott and Althakeb (1977); Wilson and Brown (1973); and crime seriousness rating studies, Sheley (1980); Sebba (1980); Walker (1978). Sheley (p 123) suggests that this field has become “a fairly important concern in the field of criminology” and that “as research into the deterrence of crime Erickson (et al (1977)): Silberman (1976): and moral commitment to societal norms (Hirschi (1969) increases, the use of crime seriousness ratings will also increase”. Also as Sebba writes “since the publication of Sellin and Wolfgangs ”The Measurement of Delinquency“ (1964) much scholarship has been devoted to the topic of seriousness scales”. Some of the studies have emphasized the validity and reliability of the scales while others have raised doubts about their methodology and usefulness, Walker (1971).

Alcohol and drug use patterns of prisoners in perth

Between June and September 1987 926 prisoners received into Perth metropolitan prisons were screened for alcohol and drug problems. A comprehensive interviewer administered questionnaire and other measures such as content analysis of medical and criminal records provided the data base. To enable a thorough analysis, and a comparison across record types, an eight point classification system was used. This system incorporated dimensions of “consumption”, “dependency”, “association with crime” and “self perception” for alcohol and drug use. The results suggest that a third of the sample consume “hazardous” amounts of alcohol. Only 6% of the sample were classified as current drug dependents. The results support previous research which indicates that alcohol abuse amongst offenders is a major problem. The groups that emerge as the main concerns are: Aboriginal alcohol abusers, alcohol abusers not concerned with their alcohol use, drunk drivers and women drug and alcohol abusers. The validity of the screening insruments is examined, a strategy for screening for drug and alcohol problems is susggested and the implications of the results for prevention and treatment interventions is discussed.

Social issues as media constructions: The case of 'road rage'

‘Road rage’ is a term that became frequently used in the media in the 1990s. While it referred to a wide and imprecise range of behaviours, it appears to have resonated with the desires and concerns of media audiences. In this article we consider the reasons why ‘road rage’ has proved to be such a popular media object and examine the essential question of whether there has been a real increase in a type of crime that could be labelled ‘road rage’. A content analysis is used to measure the degree to which criminal and non-criminal events are captured in ‘road rage’ stories in the media. These results are juxtaposed against the incidence of ‘road rage’ events reported to the police and survey findings on the perceived likelihood of being involved in a ‘road rage’ incident. The sudden appearance and rapid diffusion of road rage as an object of media attention is interpreted using the natural history approach to social problems. The results add to a growing body of findings which can be used to illuminate the trajectory of media interests in regard to ‘new’ crimes.