The perception of small crime

Salima Douhou, Jan Magnus () and Arthur van Soest ()

European Journal of Political Economy, 2011, vol. 27, issue 4, 749-763

Abstract: In this paper we measure perceptions of incorrect behavior or ‘small crime’, based on a questionnaire administered to a large representative sample from the Dutch population. In the questionnaire we ask the respondents to rate the severity or justifiability of a number of small crimes. We present short questions that only state the nature of the small crime, as well as vignette questions, describing in detail a fictitious person committing the small crime and other factors related to the circumstances in which the small crime is committed. We find that the perceived severity of small crimes varies systematically with characteristics of the respondent as well as of the person committing the crime. Also, the association between respondent characteristics and perceived seriousness changes if the respondents are given more information about the offender and the circumstances of the offense.

Keywords: Crime seriousness; Social norms; Vignettes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Working Paper: The Perception of Small Crime (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:27:y:2011:i:4:p:749-763

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2011.05.005

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