Noah Norton successfully defends his MA thesis

Congratulations to Noah Norton, who successfully defended his MA thesis titled, "Perceptual Deterrence, Ambiguity, and Group Size in Criminal Decision Making".

ABSTRACT

Advances in deterrence theory have illustrated that risk perceptions are informed by prior experiences (or lack thereof) with punishment and that estimates of risk perceptions are imprecisely formed. Yet, explorations of these factors have been conducted under the assumption that individuals offend alone despite growing evidence that the presence of others fundamentally shapes opportunities for crime by altering the benefits and costs of offending. In understanding how the group specifically alters the costs of crime, research has generally indicated that it reduces the perceived likelihood of getting caught however there is limited consideration as to how the group context alters the development of risk perceptions or the confidence in generating these estimates.

Using hypothetical vignettes that manipulate both crime type and the presence of co-offenders, the current study seeks to understand whether perceptions of sanction certainty, perceptual updating, and risk ambiguity vary across the group nature of an offense. Findings indicate there are limited differences in the observed dimensions of decision-making across group conditions, which provides insight into the impact of the group context and how individuals incorporate situational characteristics into perceptions of risk.