How Legal Punishment Affects Crime
An Integrated Understanding of the Law's Punitive Behavioral Mechanisms
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6415212 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Benjamin Van Rooij (0000-0003-4300-0716, University of Amsterdam), Malouke Esra Kuiper (0000-0002-1827-7126, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Alex R Piquero (0000-0003-4198-4985, University of Miami) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 509-526 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annual Review of Law and Social Science (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1550-3585 • E-ISSN: 1550-3631 |
| Publisher | Annual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-111524-094646 |
| OpenAlex | W4412563032 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 93 |
Punishment plays a major function in preventing crime. Punishment can potentially shape criminal conduct through at least 13 different mechanisms: 5 have a positive effect, reducing crime, and 8 have a negative effect, stimulating offending. This article explains what these 13 potential effects of punishment are and how they have been theorized. It further reviews the body of available empirical evidence for each of these mechanisms. It finds that for many mechanisms there is mixed and inconclusive evidence with major methodological challenges. The article further analyzes the conditions under which punishment affects crime, including the type of crime, offender, and underlying causes and correlates of crime. It also explores the time frames through which punishment affects crime, as well as the ways in which different behavioral effects of punishment interact. The conclusion develops ideas about how this body of empirical work can come to shape criminal justice practice
Criminology · Political science · Punishment (psychology · Punitive damages · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
Collateral Consequences of Punishment
The Pains of Imprisonment Revisited
Procedural justice perceptions, legitimacy beliefs, and compliance with the law
Can Punishment Encourage Offending? Investigating The “resetting” Effect
Reconceptualizing Deterrence
Crafting Normative Messages to Protect the Environment
Criminal Deterrence
Putting the “social” back in legal socialization
Reforming the police through procedural justice training
A Fine is a Price
The Constructive, Destructive, and Reconstructive Power of Social Norms
A Network Approach to Compliance
Is a fine still a price? Replication as robustness in empirical legal studies
Testing a fine is a price in the lab
Youth Perceptions of Law Enforcement and Worry About Crime from 1976 to 2016
Are the Criminogenic Effects of Incarceration Mediated by a Change in Criminal Thinking or a Change in Perceived Certainty
A Psychological Network Approach to Attitudes and Preventive Behaviors During Pandemics
Using a restraining order as a protective risk management strategy to prevent intimate partner violence
Specifying the direct and indirect effects of low self-control and situational factors in offenders' decision making
A Reconceptualization of General and Specific Deterrence
Prisons Do Not Reduce Recidivism
The Effect of Education on Crime
The Effectiveness of Correctional Rehabilitation
Custodial Sanctions and Reoffending
Assessing the Extent of Crime Displacement and Diffusion of Benefits
The Impact of Incarceration on Recidivism
Public Opinion and Criminal Justice Policy
Sanctions, Perceptions, and Crime
Ecology and Criminology? Applying the tenets of procedural justice to environmental regulations
Response to “Procedural Justice and Policing
Elaborating the Individual Difference Component in Deterrence Theory
Procedural Justice and Legal Compliance
Procedural Justice and Policing
Reliable Information and Rational Policy Decisions
Public Preferences for Rehabilitation Versus Incarceration of Juvenile Offenders
The incarceration ledger
Rehabilitation in a Red State
What Works
The Criminogenic Effects of Imprisonment
Behavioral criminology and public policy
The stigma of incarceration experience
Assessing Macro-Level Predictors and Theories of Crime
Rehabilitation
Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century
Imprisonment and Reoffending
Public preferences for rehabilitation versus incarceration of juvenile offenders
The Impact of Housing Vouchers on Crime in US Cities and Suburbs
Crime and Punishment
On Exploring the "Dark Figure" of Crime
The Labeling of Convicted Felons and Its Consequences for Recidivism
Estimating a Dose‐response Relationship Between Length of Stay and Future Recidivism in Serious Juvenile Offenders
Perceptual Deterrence Among Active Residential Burglars
Deterrence and Deterrability
Clinging to Failure
General Deterrence and Corporate Environmental Behavior
Examining Procedural Justice and Legitimacy in Corporate Offending and Beyond‐Compliance Behavior
Homelessness
Income inequality, poverty and crime across nations
Enduring Individual Differences and Rational Choice Theories of Crime
Competing Institutions
From populism to climate scepticism
The Ex Ante Function of the Criminal Law
Law and Social Change
Inside the Box
Child Marriage in a Village in West Java (Indonesia)
Juvenile Arrest and Collateral Educational Damage in the Transition to Adulthood
The infliction of punishment
Procedural Justice and Affect Intensity
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |