IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v39y2011i3p261-267.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decide your time: Testing deterrence theory's certainty and celerity effects on substance-using probationers

Author

Listed:
  • O'Connell, Daniel
  • Visher, Christy A.
  • Martin, Steven
  • Parker, Laurin
  • Brent, John

Abstract

Background Bolstered by the initial effectiveness of programs such as Hawaii's Project HOPE, the resurgence in practical applications of deterrence theory has focused on certainty and swiftness of punishment. Following this theoretical trend, Delaware's Decide Your Time (DYT) program was designed to manage high risk substance-using probationers by focusing on the certainty of detection through frequent drug tests and graduated but not severe sanctions.Objective This paper, stemming from a larger process evaluation of DYT, reports on the theoretical development and implementation issues involved in instituting such a program in a large, urban probation department.Methods Data for the current effort consisted of notes taken at DYT management and staff meetings, interviews with key informants, and observational fieldwork.Results The evaluation demonstrated that judicial practices, client eligibility, logistics, and cooperation with secure facilities all posed noteworthy issues for program implementation. Perhaps just as important is the willingness of the program managers to listen to front line officers and make necessary changes to ensure the program's effectiveness and efficiency.Conclusion This study suggests that the design of similar programs should carefully consider the local legal structure and the policies and practices of the corrections institutions, treatment providers, and probation department.

Suggested Citation

  • O'Connell, Daniel & Visher, Christy A. & Martin, Steven & Parker, Laurin & Brent, John, 2011. "Decide your time: Testing deterrence theory's certainty and celerity effects on substance-using probationers," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 261-267, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:39:y:2011:i:3:p:261-267
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235211000328
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bentham, Jeremy, 1781. "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number bentham1781.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zettler, Haley R. & Morris, Robert G. & Piquero, Alex R. & Cardwell, Stephanie M., 2015. "Assessing the Celerity of Arrest on 3-Year Recidivism Patterns in a Sample of Criminal Defendants," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 428-436.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Koyama, 2012. "Prosecution Associations in Industrial Revolution England: Private Providers of Public Goods?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(1), pages 95-130.
    2. Papageorgiou, Athanasios, 2018. "The Effect of Immigration on the Well-Being of Native Populations: Evidence from the United Kingdom," MPRA Paper 93045, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Ahuvia, Aaron, 2008. "If money doesn't make us happy, why do we act as if it does?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 491-507, August.
    4. Thomas J. Miceli & Kathleen Segerson & Dietrich Earnhart, 2022. "The role of experience in deterring crime: A theory of specific versus general deterrence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1833-1853, October.
    5. Hänsel, Martin C. & Franks, Max & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2022. "Optimal carbon taxation and horizontal equity: A welfare-theoretic approach with application to German household data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Konow, James, 1996. "A positive theory of economic fairness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 13-35, October.
    7. Christian Seidl, 2013. "The St. Petersburg Paradox at 300," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 247-264, June.
    8. Roger D. Congleton, 2022. "Behavioral economics and the Virginia school of political economy: overlaps and complementarities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(3), pages 387-404, June.
    9. Jantsch, Antje & Le Blanc, Julia & Schmidt, Tobias, 2022. "Wealth and subjective well-being in Germany," Discussion Papers 11/2022, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    10. Pierre-André Jouvet & Gregory Ponthiere, 2011. "Survival, reproduction and congestion: the spaceship problem re-examined," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 233-273, October.
    11. Andrea Stevenson Thorpe & Stephen Roper, 2019. "The Ethics of Gamification in a Marketing Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 597-609, March.
    12. Paul Dolan & Daniel Kahneman, 2008. "Interpretations Of Utility And Their Implications For The Valuation Of Health," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(525), pages 215-234, January.
    13. Bruce W. Klaw & Don Mayer, 2021. "Ethics, Markets, and the Legalization of Insider Trading," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 55-70, January.
    14. Dickinson, David L. & Masclet, David, 2019. "Using ethical dilemmas to predict antisocial choices with real payoff consequences: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 195-215.
    15. Galiani, Sebastian & Jaitman, Laura & Soares, Rodrigo R., 2019. "Introduction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 421-425.
    16. Kihun Kim & Zulfiquer Ali Haider & Zhenyu Wu & Junsheng Dou, 2020. "Corporate Social Performance of Family Firms: A Place-Based Perspective in the Context of Layoffs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 235-252, November.
    17. Horst Entorf & Hannes Spengler, 2015. "Crime, prosecutors, and the certainty of conviction," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 167-201, February.
    18. Colombo, Sergio & Hanley, Nicholas & Tinch, Dugald, 2010. "Differences between Decision and Experienced Utility: An Investigation using the Choice Experiment method," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2010-13, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    19. Charbonnier, Flora & Morstyn, Thomas & McCulloch, Malcolm D., 2022. "Coordination of resources at the edge of the electricity grid: Systematic review and taxonomy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    20. Dhami, Sanjit & al-Nowaihi, Ali, 2013. "An extension of the Becker proposition to non-expected utility theory," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 10-20.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Probation Deterrence Substance use;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:39:y:2011:i:3:p:261-267. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.