Moral self-sanctions and social censure deter crime more than legal penalties do

Evidence

The most powerful deterrent to criminal conduct operates through self-sanctions. People constantly preside over their own behavior and have to live with their self-evaluation. In this mode of self-regulation, individuals do not transgress because it results in self-condemnation. Indeed, many adhere to the law not because they fear legal penalties but because they subscribe to the values embodied in the law. Hence, they would be law abiding on the basis of self-sanctions alone even if there were no legal penalties. Evaluating the incremental deterrent force of these various sanctions requires assessment of all three forms—legal, social, and self-evaluative. Tittle (1977) studied various sanctions that deter young adults from a wide array of illegal activities. Lawful behavior was best predicted by moral self-sanctions and fear of social censure. Fear of legal consequences was the weakest contributor in the triadic mix. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1384

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: Tittle 1977 measured self-sanctions, social censure, and legal fear — worth chasing the actual effect sizes to see how much weaker legal deterrence really was.
• XREF: Connects to rational-trade literature: reputation and internalized norms substitute for formal enforcement (Milgrom’s law merchant, diamond bourse self-governance).

Related

• Fear of legal consequences is the weakest of all deterrents to crime. (similarity 0.92)
• Behavior is regulated by fear of penalties, social censure, or self-censure (similarity 0.84)
• Legal deterrence based on threatened punishment works poorly in practice. (similarity 0.82)
• Self-sanctions deter interpersonal but not property crimes (similarity 0.82)
• Self-sanctions operate even when transgression goes undetected and undeterred (similarity 0.82)
• Perceived risk, not actual risk, drives compliance and stops deterring harm. (similarity 0.82)
• Moral self-sanctions regulate conduct before external sanctions do (similarity 0.81)
• Moral self-sanctions make people accountable for their actions (similarity 0.80)
• Disengaging self-sanctions requires contesting evidence of harm rather than denying the act (similarity 0.79)
• Criminals must preserve self-respect by sanitizing and deflecting blame for misconduct. (similarity 0.79)
• Social sanctions deter only those with reputations worth losing (similarity 0.79)
• Successful socialization replaces external control with internal self-sanctions. (similarity 0.78)