An Assessment of the Attitudes Towards Crime Among Professionals in the Criminal Justice System

Attitudes towards crime held by professionals in the criminal justice system seem to be relevant to the implementation of crime control measures and prison reform programmes. With the aim of describing and comparing the attitudes of these professionals towards the causes, prevention, and treatment of crime, two studies were carried out. In Study 1, a Likert attitude scale was constructed. The Attitudes towards Crime Scale (ACS) showed acceptable levels of reliability and validity. In Study 2 the ACS was administered to various samples of professionals in the criminal justice system. Results showed that attitudes of all groups tended to be favourable to environmental causes and preventive-rehabilitation goals through social assistance. However, expected differences among professional groups were found. Crime prevention and prisoner rehabilitation goals depend in great part on the performance of professionals in the criminal justice system. According to attitude theory (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980), attitudes are predictors of behaviour. Thus, attitudes can be seen as predictors of professional behaviour in interventions relating to crime (Hogarth 1974; Seitz 1989), and accordingly the study of attitudes towards crime held by professionals in the criminal justice system can positively contribute to the implementation of crime control measures and prison rehabilitation programmes (Melvin et al. 1985). From a theoretical point of view, one of the most attractive proposals for explaining attitudes towards crime is that of Carroll et al. (1987). These authors propose a framework for understanding individual differences among criminal justice decision makers and the implications of these differences for sentencing decisions. According to this approach, individual difference variables including sentencing goals (punishment, retribution, rehabilitation, incapacitation, deterrence), attributions about the causes of crime (parental upbringing, mental illness, poverty, and so on), ideology (conserva tism, liberalism) and personality (authoritarianism, dogmatism, locus of control) can be causally ordered. The authors organize these variables by using concepts from both the Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) theory of reasoned action and the attributional analysis of sentencing decisions injudicial circles (Carroll 1978; Diamond and Herhold 1981). The reasoned action theory is a model for explaining attitudes as predictors of behaviour—in this case, attitudes towards crime as predictors of sentencing behaviour.