A common link binding the many derivations of scales of the relative perceived seriousness of offenses has been the failure to test whether their use leads to conclusions any different from those reached with the use of simpler crime indices. The study addresses this neglected issue by investigating the relative utility of a perceptually based offense seriousness scale in predicting judicial sentence decisions. Using either a category or magnitude scaling technique, 109 Florida felony court judges rated the relative seriousness of 74 "macro" level offenses phrased in the terminology found within the Florida statutes. In contrast to the popular seriousness scale of Sellin and Wolfgang (1964) that is premised upon micro level crime descriptions, this type of seriousness measure is readily adaptable to criminal justice statistical data which is often measured in generic legal terminology. Initial analysis revealed the derived seriousness scale to be a reliable measure marked by a significant level of consensual agreement amongst the judges. Using a data base of over 5,000 felony sentencing decisions, the perceived seriousness values along with a number of much simpler seriousness weighting schemes were than independently incorporated into prior record and instant offense information. Analysis revealed that although the modeling of judicial sentence decisions could be markedly improved in some instances by increasing the precision of the offense seriousness weighting scheme, the perceptually based scale did not outperform a much simpler crime severity measure based upon the statutory maximum penalty structure. Overall, the addition of perceptually derived offense seriousness weights to past and present offense variables did not appear to strengthen their ability to model judicial decision-making. This study concludes by suggesting new avenues of research in / this topical area and possible uses for perceptually based scales of the relative seriousness of offenses. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-11, Section: A, page: 3713. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74969 |
| Contributors | KERN, RICHARD PAUL., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 400 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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