Is a 'bad individual' more condemnable than several 'bad individuals'? Examining the scope-severity paradox

Gilles Grolleau (), Lisette Ibanez and Naoufel Mzoughi

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Abstract: Previous literature found empirical evidence to the scope-severity paradox (SSP), corresponding to situations where the perceived harm of a wrongdoing or crime decreases with the number of victims. We examine this phenomenon for the perpetrators' side. Using a survey experiment, we examine whether increasing the number of perpetrators of a crime, namely a fraud, decreases its perceived severity (and subsequent punishment) at the individual level. Two scenarios are examined corresponding to two kinds of fraud: a fraud committed by a financial adviser against his/her own employer (scenario 1) and a tax evasion by an executive (scenario 2). Overall, our results do not offer a clear-cut support for the scope-severity paradox for the perpetrators' side, even if some secondary results can be indicative of a possible SSP in some circumstances. More precisely, in the case of a financial fraud, the stated severity increases when the number of perpetrators is low. We discuss the implications of our results and raise important issues for future research.

Keywords: crime; identifiability bias; punishment; scope-severity paradox; wrongdoing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.umontpellier.fr/hal-02448914v1
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Published in Review of Law and Economics, 2020, 16 (3), ⟨10.1515/rle-2019-0017⟩

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Journal Article: Is a ‘Bad Individual’ more Condemnable than Several ‘Bad Individuals’? Examining the Scope-severity Paradox (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02448914

DOI: 10.1515/rle-2019-0017

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