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Article
Publication date: 10 April 2017

Marek Palasinski and Neil Shortland

The purpose of this paper is to explore individual factors predicting support for harsher punishments for relatively common and uncommon serious offenders.

471

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore individual factors predicting support for harsher punishments for relatively common and uncommon serious offenders.

Design/methodology/approach

In Study 1, 120 UK participants (60 males and 60 females; mean age =37.31 SD=16.74) completed a survey exploring the extent to which they supported harsher punishments (SHP) for first time and repeat fraud, sexual and violent offenders. In Study 2, 131 participants (70 Britons and 61 Singaporeans; 69 females and 62 males; mean age=31.57; SD=10.87) completed a similar survey exploring their support for life sentence without the possibility of parole (SLSWP) for rather uncommon repeat offenders (i.e. drug traffickers, human traffickers, serious sexual offenders).

Findings

Study 1 found that right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) was an SHP predictor for first time and repeat fraud, violent and sex offenders. Study 2 found that national identity (i.e. how British or Singaporean participants felt) played a similar role to Study 1’s RWA in being a positive SLSWP predictor for repeat human traffickers and drug traffickers of both sexes, as well as male sex offenders. In contrast to the hypothesis, however, participants’ locations did not appear to play a statistically significant role.

Research limitations/implications

This survey-based research reveals a nuanced and quite consistent picture that could benefit from the inclusion of socio-economic factors and other cross-cultural comparisons.

Practical implications

The key message from this study is to inform the public on the role that right-wing authoritarianism and national identity play in their SHP and SLSWP.

Social implications

It is vital to increase the legislators’ and the public awareness of the role that national identity and RWA seem to play.

Originality/value

The paper offers insight into factors behind people’s punitive attitudes towards specific crimes regardless of geo-cultural location.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 8 August 2018

Viktoria Gallova, Marek Palasinski, Neil Shortland, Michael Humann and Lorraine Bowman Grieve

The purpose of this paper is to determine the potential predictors of anxiety about digital security, terrorist threats and support for high-tech counter measures.

467

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the potential predictors of anxiety about digital security, terrorist threats and support for high-tech counter measures.

Design/methodology/approach

In Study 1, 195 participants indicated their anxiety about digital security systems, data protection and social networking sites. In Study 2, 107 participants indicated their anxiety about domestic terrorism, international terrorism and extremist groups. In Study 3, 261 participants indicated their support for high-tech counter-terrorism measures.

Findings

Study 1 suggests that whereas anxiety about digital security systems, data protection and social networking sites was positively predicted by right-wing authoritarianism, anxiety about social networking was also negatively predicted by time spent online. Study 2 shows that time spent online was a negative predictor of anxiety about domestic terrorism. Study 3 indicates that the strongest positive predictor of support for all the measures was right-wing authoritarianism, followed by national identity.

Research limitations/implications

The findings show the relevance of terror management theory to digital security and counter-terrorism.

Practical implications

It appears that right-wing authoritarianism and national identity may serve as mechanisms for people to subjectively counter the presented threats. This notion may inform relevant policy and practice aimed at making communities safer and potentially helps introduce counter-terror measures with less public backlash.

Social implications

When designing counter-terror measures, policy makers should consider compound national identities (e.g. Catalan or Basque people).

Originality/value

The paper makes contribution to under-explored areas of terrorism anxiety and support for counter-terror measures.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 13 May 2019

Lorraine Bowman Grieve, Marek Palasinski and Neil Shortland

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of vengeance as a terrorist motivator.

202

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of vengeance as a terrorist motivator.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper takes a community psychological perspective to examine vengeance in a number of forms. First covering “blood vengeance”, it then examines vigilantism and death squads as functional examples of vengeful entities, as well as the morality of vengeance and the impact of propaganda on vengeance as a terrorist motivator. Finally, both group processes and individual factors relating to the promotion and use of vengeance in terrorism are covered.

Findings

Vengeance can be conceptualised in a number of ways: as a predisposing factor to individual involvement, a factor that contributes to keeping the movement “bound” together (but which can also negatively affect the group’s strategic logic), a factor in the escalation of violent activity through vigilantism, retribution and retaliation which can result in a perpetuation of a cycle of violence, and as a moral mandate that is ideologically rationalised and justified, with perceptions of righteousness and obligation inherent to it.

Research limitations/implications

The presented research is limited by the scarcely available data.

Practical implications

Efforts should be made to defuse vengeful motivations by tapping into collective identities of communities and incorporating multicultural values.

Social implications

Policy makers should be wary of scoring populist scores by ridiculing out-group/religious elements as that creates potential for vengeful terror attacks.

Originality/value

The paper offers insights by renewing the neglected perspective of vengeance in terrorism research.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 18 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

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Article
Publication date: 11 July 2016

Marek Palasinski and Neil Shortland

The purpose of this paper is to address individual factors predicting punitive attitudes towards sexual and domestic offences and offenders have received little attention.

589

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address individual factors predicting punitive attitudes towards sexual and domestic offences and offenders have received little attention.

Design/methodology/approach

In Study 1,137 participants completed a 25-item online questionnaire exploring individual factors hypothesised to predict punitive attitudes towards four sexual crimes: rape, paedophilia, incest and bestiality. In Study 2,100 participants completed a similar questionnaire exploring individual factors hypothesised to predict punitive attitudes towards male and female emotional, physical and sexual abusers.

Findings

The standard multiple regression models of Study 1 found that age (i.e. being older), belief in a just world and gender (i.e. being female) were predictors of harsher punitive attitudes. The models of Study 2 found that the low score on the social dominance scale was the most common predictor.

Research limitations/implications

This survey-based project presents a nuanced picture that could be complemented by the inclusion of a wider range of more complex factors and follow-on qualitative studies.

Practical implications

The key message from this study is to inform the public on the role of personality factors in developing punitive attitudes.

Social implications

It is vital to increase the legislators’ and the people’ awareness of the factors shaping the public impressions of criminal justice processes and evidence-based treatment effectiveness.

Originality/value

This relatively modest paper offers insight of personality factors into people’s punitive attitudes shaping actual legislation.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 13 July 2012

Marek Palasinski

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of British adolescents' views on happy slapping and offer a potential framework for challenging their implicit tolerance of the…

137

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of British adolescents' views on happy slapping and offer a potential framework for challenging their implicit tolerance of the phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 41 adolescents from three large English cities was interviewed about happy slapping at seven youth community centres and their narratives were analysed by drawing on the classical discourse analysis and the concept of narrative repertoires.

Findings

In contrast to popular press associations between happy slapping and boredom or deviance, the study suggests that adolescents construe happy slapping (but not lasting‐injury “unhappy slapping”) as amusing, original, controllable and deterring rather than encouraging violence.

Practical implications

It is cautiously proposed that the narratives might be potentially questioned by impugning the alleged originality, challenging the perceived harmlessness, casting doubt on the excuse of evidence collection and putting greater emphasis on psychosocial skills.

Social implications

When analyzing the data both methodological and ethical considerations should be kept in mind. Participants, who were criminal record‐free college students, may have been inhibited by the recorded nature of the interview with a stranger, although the technique of projective questions likely alleviated their anxiety.

Originality/value

Not only does the study offer insight into urban adolescents' perspectives on happy slapping, which to date has not been addressed in social science, but it also cautiously proposes an intervention framework which needs to be developed, tested and refined in further research.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 13 October 2014

Shivam Fijwala, Marek Palasinski and Neil Shortland

Given that how crimes are perceived by the general public influences their sense of community safety, police priorities and offending behaviour, and in light of little, if any at…

311

Abstract

Purpose

Given that how crimes are perceived by the general public influences their sense of community safety, police priorities and offending behaviour, and in light of little, if any at all, attention being paid to the determinants of such perception, the purpose of this paper is to examine their predictive value.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 150 English participants with diverse backgrounds (78 males and 72 females – mean age: M=24.3; SD=5.44) completed surveys on their perceived increase in violent, sexual and benefit fraud crimes, taking into account theoretically and empirically underpinned factors, like age, income, number of days unemployed in the last three years, number of years spent in formal education and machiavellianism.

Findings

The multiple regression results suggest that participants with less formal education and less income were more likely to see a rise in violent crime. They also suggest that participants with less formal education and longer history of recent unemployment were more likely to see a rise in sexual crime. It turned out, however, that the recent history of unemployment was not a significant predictor of the perceived rise in benefit fraud – only a high machiavellianism score was.

Research limitations/implications

This quantitative research paints a complex picture that could be complemented by follow-on qualitative studies.

Practical implications

The overarching message from this relatively modest study, therefore, which is part of a much larger and more complex ongoing research project, is to inform the public on crime in approachable and mass data-driven ways rather than leaving this to sensation-driven and selective scenario-focused media.

Social implications

Increasing people's sense of community safety is likely to improve their general well-being, community cohesion and trust in others without necessarily inclining them to take personal risks and falling victim to crime due to ignorance and gullibility. This, in turn, might help guide crime prevention strategies and contribute to the actual reduction in crime levels and safer communities.

Originality/value

Not only does this article offer insight into people's perception of different crimes, addressing an important and neglected research deficit, but is also cautiously proposes the need for more professional education of the public about crime figures.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 29 March 2013

Marek Palasinski

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of English adolescents' views on knife‐carrying and offer a potential framework for challenging their implicit tolerance of the…

3387

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of English adolescents' views on knife‐carrying and offer a potential framework for challenging their implicit tolerance of the phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 25 adolescents from three large English cities (London, Birmingham and Manchester) was interviewed about knife‐carrying at seven youth community centers and their narratives were analyzed by drawing on the classical discourse analysis and the concept of narrative repertoires.

Findings

The adolescents constructed the social and legal consequences of knife‐carrying as normal, trivial and inevitable.

Research limitations/implications

Talking to a stranger with a voice recorder about the sensitive subject of knife‐carrying appeared to be problematic, which probably had an inhibitory effect despite the conversational warm‐up and assured anonymity.

Practical implications

Cautioning against creating common sense associations between knife‐carrying and irresponsibility or deviance, the paper emphasizes the need for the focus on the low controllability and unpredictability of the knife.

Originality/value

The paper presents scholars and outreach workers with an intimate glimpse of how personal responsibility for knife‐carrying and its potential consequences could be diminished by removing the agency from the carrier and rhetorically placing it in society.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 13 July 2012

Tim Bateman and Chris Fox

176

Abstract

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Available. Content available
Article
Publication date: 29 March 2013

Tim Bateman and Hannah Smithson

54

Abstract

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

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