The Anti-deterrence Hypothesis

Although there is by now considerable debate on how much general deterrence effect international criminal justice has, there has been far less discussion of a discreet dimension that has long been identified in the criminology literature, namely the possibility that criminal justice would have an anti-deterrent effect. Along what lines, then, might we understand international criminal justice to be partly ‘criminogenic’? This article sketches some ways in which this phenomenon might be understood, taking into account the specificities of international justice. It argues that the risk of further violence by suspects, of imperfect justice revealing its weaknesses and creating a backlash, and of romanticization of ‘outlaws’ can all count as potential anti-deterrent effects, although their significance for the larger project remains hard to gauge.

Does Informational Equivalence Preserve Strategic Behavior? Experimental Results on Trockel’s Model of Selten’s Chain Store Story

The purpose of this study is to experimentally test Trockel’s game, which is a modelling of the classical Chain Store Game (CSG), and determine whether one of the two theories of Equality and Deterrence may better account for the observed behavior. The CSG is an example of a simple game in extensive form where the actual behavior of well-informed players cannot be expected to agree with the clear results of game theoretical reasoning. To explain the disagreement between the theory and the expected behavior, Trockel’s game is proposed as an alternative modelling of the scenario. The existence of more than one equilibrium in Trockel’s game opens a door for reputation building. This study is the first attempt to experimentally test this alternative game with the same purpose. According to my data, there is some evidence in favor of both Equality and Deterrence Hypotheses. However, since the strategies compatible with the Equality Hypothesis are played more frequently, I observe some patterns which share the same intuition with the Deterrence Hypothesis.

Male High School Sport Participation and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Adulthood

Using data from the Add Health, the authors consider whether male high school sport participation had an association with intimate partner violence perpetration into adulthood, controlling for other known predictors. Results show that sport participation is associated with a reduced risk of perpetrating intimate partner violence in adulthood, which the authors interpret as generally supportive of the deterrence hypothesis, the notion that playing sport promotes prosocial values, increases supervision, and increases bonding to conventional institutions that lower the risk of engaging in violent behavior against women. However, the inclusion of measures representing this hypothesis failed to attenuate the sport participation–intimate partner violence association, raising questions about whether the deterrence hypothesis is the appropriate explanation.