M. Lyn Exum

Integrating the desire–for–control and rational choice in a corporate crime context

The “rational choice” framework, with its focus on risks and rewards, is often used to explain corporate criminality. In this paper, we build on this framework by integrating the notion of “desire‐for‐control.” Although common to many psychologists, the desire‐for‐control, or the general wish to be in control over everyday life events, has not been examined for its relevance in understanding criminal activity generally, or within corporate offending in particular. After demonstrating the importance of desire‐for‐control in the corporate context, we use data from a sample of managers and MBA students to examine the extent to which desire‐for‐control relates to rational‐choice considerations and corporate criminal decision‐making. Results suggest that desire‐for‐control (1) influences the interpretation of rational‐choice considerations and (2) is positively related to corporate criminality even after controlling for a number of important situational‐ and individual‐level factors. Implications for future theoretical and empirical research are addressed.

Exploring the Gender Differences in Protective Factors Implications for Understanding Resiliency

Understanding the causes of why individuals desist from or are resilient to delinquency and drug use has become a salient social concern. Much research has centered on the effects that protective factors possess in fostering resiliency but that research has not fully explored how the effects of protective factors might vary across gender. Using a sample of 711 individuals from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child—Mother data set, the authors investigate how individual protective factors vary across gender on two measures of resiliency that document the lack of involvement in serious delinquency and drug use. They also examine whether the accumulation of protective factors varies across gender in fostering resiliency. The findings suggest that although males and females rely on different individual protective factors to foster resiliency, the accumulation of protective factors appears to be equally important for males and females in promoting resiliency. The authors discuss theoretical and policy implications.

Examining the Cumulative Effects of Protective Factors: Resiliency among a National Sample of High-Risk Youths

Abstract Research has consistently suggested that individuals from high-risk environments who experience multiple risk factors are most susceptible to becoming delinquent. A substantial portion of these individuals, however, are resilient to the pressures within high-risk environments and thus do not become delinquent. While past research has identified protective factors that are independently correlated with resiliency, relatively few studies have investigated the cumulative effects that protective factors possess in promoting resiliency. Using a sample of 711 individuals from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child-Mother data set, this study investigates the cumulative effects of protective factors in fostering resiliency. The findings suggest that the accumulation of protection is positively correlated with resiliency over and above the effects of risk. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

The Prevalence of Alcohol-Involved Homicide Offending A Meta-Analytic Review

This study meta-analyzes 23 independent studies that included information from 28,265 homicide offenders across nine countries. On average, 48% of homicide offenders were reportedly under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offense and 37% were intoxicated. We found no demographic variations across age, gender, or race, although the proportion testing positive within the United States appears to be decreasing over time. Further, the proportion of offenders who were under the influence of alcohol was lower among those who committed the homicide with a firearm. Communities that have high homicide rates should work to reduce alcohol consumption rates.

Testing Theories of Criminal Decision Making: Some Empirical Questions about Hypothetical Scenarios

To study criminal decision making, researchers often present participants with a written vignette describing a hypothetical offense.Participants are then asked to self-report their likelihood of engaging in the offense, as well as their perceptions of the certainty and severity of various consequences. In this chapter, we examine two criticisms of the hypothetical scenario methodology. First, we consider whether self-reported intentions to offend are valid proxies for real-world criminal behavior. Second, we explore the possibility that researchers are inadvertently influencing perceptions of the costs and benefits of crime by providing participants with a predetermined list of consequences to consider. Using original datasets collected to examine these issues, we find that measurement error and methodological artifacts emerge when using hypothetical scenarios. Throughout the chapter, we balance the advantages to using hypothetical scenarios against the limitations of the methodology and the need for future research to better understand the validity of this technique.

Making Prisoners Accountable Are Contingency Management Programs the Answer

There has been a renewed interest among some prison policy makers to hold inmates more accountable for their actions. The belief is that inmates require more structure and discipline in their daily activities and must demonstrate that they have earned privileges that can lead to their early release. A meta-analysis and narrative review was undertaken to determine the utility of contingency management (CM) programs for improving inmates’ performance (e.g., prison adjustment, educational/work skills) and to generate a list of program principles for managing CM programs effectively. The study finds that CM programs produce robust gains in a variety of behaviors (e.g., pro-social behaviors, education, work assignments, etc.) in prison settings. As a result, the authors provide a list of “what works” principles, categorized into implementation and treatment strategies for administering effective CM programs in prison.

An Examination of Situational Crime Prevention Strategies Across Convenience Stores and Fast-Food Restaurants:

Although the efficacy of situational crime prevention (SCP) strategies on convenience store safety has received considerable attention, the security of fast-food restaurants has been virtually ignored. This study was based on a population of convenience stores (n = 295) and fast-food restaurants (n = 321) in Charlotte, North Carolina. The study examined whether the crime control strategies commonly recommended to the convenience store industry were effective at reducing robbery in the fast-food industry. Relatedly, the study examined whether target-hardening strategies have similar effects on robbery prevalence rates across the two types of businesses. In general, the article found that many target-hardening strategies derived from the literature failed to impact robbery rates for either type of establishment. For those factors that did emerge as statistically significant predictors of robbery, the preventative effects generally appeared in one type of establishment or the other, but not in both. These findings suggest that effective SCP strategies are truly situation specific and not “one size fits all.”

A test of the predictive validity of hypothetical intentions to offend

Abstract Researchers commonly use hypothetical intentions to offend as proxies for real-world offending behavior. The current study examined the predictive validity of these hypothetical intentions, as well as the consequences of using offending intentions in statistical models of decision-making. Undergraduate students were asked to self-report their intentions to cheat on a hypothetical online exam for which they were unprepared. Minutes later, they completed a difficult online trivia test for course credit. Students who performed well on the trivia test were presumed to have cheated. Hypothetical intentions to cheat were found to predict actual cheating at a rate no better than chance. Furthermore, while several factors were found to be predictive of hypothetical cheating, none were predictive of actual cheating. This incongruence between intentions and behavior may be attributed to the different emotional reactions evoked by hypothetical and real-world offending opportunities. Implications for research on offender decision-making are discussed.

Policing Domestic Violence in the Post-SARP Era The Impact of a Domestic Violence Police Unit

During the Spousal Assault Replication Program, the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, was identified as a site where arrest did not deter misdemeanor domestic violence. Shortly after these findings were published, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department developed a Domestic Violence (DV) unit to combat the problem of intimate partner violence. The mission of the Charlotte DV unit is to reduce future offending through intensive investigation and victim assistance. The current study evaluates the impact of the Charlotte DV unit versus standard patrol on official accounts of offender recidivism in a random sample of 891 domestic violence cases. Controlling for offender demographics, prior criminal history, case severity, and additional criminal justice responses, suspects processed through the DV unit had significantly lower rates of re-offending across an 18- to 30-month follow-up period. Theoretical explanations for the DV unit effect are proposed.

ATTITUDINAL AND SITUATIONAL FACTORS AS PREDICTORS OF SELF-REPORTED LIKELIHOOD OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

ABSTRACT Previous research has examined individual trait-level characteristics, as well as situational factors related to the self-reported likelihood of males engaging in sexually aggressive behaviors. This study integrates both of these lines of research, proposing a model where individual attitudinal characteristics (sexually coercive attitudes, sexually coercive fantasy use) predict intermediate situational outcomes (current arousal, perceptions of the victims experience), and subsequent self-reported probability of sexual assault. Participants were 89 undergraduates, mostly working class male students from a small university. After completing questionnaires measuring coercive sexual fantasy use and coercive attitudes, participants read a short “acquaintance-rape” scenario, then reported their level of arousal and likelihood of sexual assault (acting as the male in the scenario). Results suggest an emotional (sexual) arousal component, a cognitive-attitudinal component, and a disinhibitory component may all affect the likelihood of sexual assault. Implications for future research and prevention approaches are also discussed.