There is a lack of research that has examined public opinion on the importance of biosocial influences for understanding the potential causes of criminal and delinquent involvement. We address this gap in the current study by surveying a nationally representative sample of adults about the importance of biosocial factors for influencing criminal behavior. Results indicate that the public believes the environment matters more than genetic factors for determining whether someone becomes a criminal. However, the data also reveal an overall acceptance of the importance of neuropsychological factors for influencing criminal behavior. An ordered logistic regression analysis was also estimated to examine potential differences in opinion across demographic categories. The results revealed that income, gender, marital status, and employment status are significantly associated with whether a respondent supports the role of biosocial factors in crime causation. Implications of the findings are discussed.

The notion of paying collegiate athletes has been contested and debated for years. Recently, however, several high-profile cases have once again generated negative headlines and as such, discussions of paying student athletes have proliferated among the popular press, college administrators, players themselves, the general public and sport management scholars. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the opinions of a nationally recruited sample of respondents to assess their attitudes related to their support of paying student athletes. While the majority of the respondents were congruent in their beliefs with regards to age, sex and level of education, there was a clear difference in respondents' viewpoints based on race. Specifically, Blacks were more than two times as likely as Whites to support payment to student athletes. Findings, implications and suggestions for future research are also examined.

Deterrence lies at the heart of the criminal justice system and policy. There is a lack of information on citizen's perceptions regarding a critical element of the deterrence process as it manifests through the communication of sanction threats. This study uses data from over 400 adults to examine their knowledge regarding the probability of detection and the average punishments for DUI, and also assesses the contribution of demographic and theoretical variables in predicting perceptions of detection probabilities and punishment estimates. Results show that persons overestimate the likelihood of detection and provide higher estimates for average sentence lengths, but very few variables predict deterrence perceptions. An investigation of the resetting effect shows that persons tend to lower the estimated likelihood of punishment after experiencing a punishment. Deterrence may work better if researchers and policy officials understand what influences these perceptions and how they may be modified.

Prior research demonstrates that racial threat is related to the time, place and severity of disenfranchisement laws for ex-felons. This study builds on that work by examining whether perceived racial threat helps to account for public opposition to the abolition of disenfranchisement policies. To do this, we draw on interview data from a survey of 1,575 Florida adults randomly sampled in 2005. Perceived racial composition of neighborhood and the perceived involvement of blacks in several crimes – the racial typification of crime – are our measures of perceived racial threat. Perceived racial composition is unrelated to opposition to re-enfranchisement of ex-felons. But the racial typification of crime significantly predicts that opposition, independent of the effects of general punitiveness, conservatism, and other predictors. Among white respondents that relationship is strongest for those who are liberal/moderate and generally less punitive and is not effected by varying levels of racial threat measured at macro-social levels.

Theoretical and empirical consideration has long been given to the role of subcultural attitudes and how they relate to delinquency and crime. Recently, Anderson has reconceptualized these early attitudinal depictions by considering the formation and role of these specific attitudes or ‘code of the street’ among African-Americans in inner-city neighborhoods. A number of important findings have emerged from this literature, yet much remains to be considered. We contribute to this literature in three specific ways by examining: (1) the scope of street code attitudes across a wide variety of individuals—and not just inner-city African American (males) to assess the generalizability of these attitudes; (2) the correlates of street code attitudes; and (3) the extent to which street code attitudes mediate the relationship between various demographic and attitudinal (self-control) variables and crime. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are addressed.