The effect of involvement with the criminal justice system: A neglected dimension of the relationship between experience and perceptions

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Abstract
Previous research in perceptual deterrence has identified what has been termed an “experiential” effect. This effect is observed by an inverse relationship between current estimates of the risk of legal sanctions and self-reported involvement in prior offending. It reflects the fact that persons who commit offenses during a particular period often report lower estimates of the certainty of punishment than those without such offending experience. The effect of committing offenses therefore may be to reduce the fear of punishment. The research reported here examines the experiential effect among groups of adults who differ in their experience with criminal justice system sanctions. The results suggest that estimates of sanction risk are related inversely to self-reported offending, but only among those who previously have been arrested and convicted. The implications of this finding for the communication of threat messages and for the deterrence process itself are discussed.