Guilt and Shame of What Might Have Been in Optimistic Offender Drivers

Habitual offender drivers are required to recover points lost on their driving license by attending reeducation courses, an experience that may, upon reflection of the incident in question, induce feelings of guilt or shame for the infractions they committed. A simulated driving task studied optimistic offender drivers to analyze the extent to which the controllability of the situational context influenced their use of internal and external factors in counterfactual thoughts and emotions such as guilt and shame. The study involved 160 drivers, of whom 54 were categorized as repeat offender drivers while 106 drivers attended courses for advanced professional driving licenses. The participants drove along a route in a driving simulator, which had been previously adjusted for the difficulty to generate a perception of high or low control. Based on the outcome obtained by the participants in this stage, each driver had to report which resources they required to improve their outcomes. Different factor ANOVAs were used to analyze our findings. The results indicated that optimistic offenders, unlike other groups (i.e., optimistic non-offender and pessimistic non-offender), thought that their results could have been better if external factors had been present (i.e., upward counterfactuals), both under conditions of high and low control. They believed their results would have been worse had it not been for their internal resources (i.e., downward counterfactuals), especially under conditions of low control. Concerning emotions of guilt and shame, offender optimists had the lowest values in both conditions compared with the other groups. We may contend that optimistic offender drivers thought they could have obtained better outcomes if external factors had been involved. In the low control condition, they justified that if it were not for such internal skills, their results could have been worse. When they generated such thoughts, the emotions of guilt and shame were minimal.

The Lasting Impact of NCAA Sanctions: SMU and the Death Penalty

In 1987, the Southern Methodist University (SMU) football program received the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA’s) harshest penalty, often referred to as the “death penalty.” SMU was caught committing two or more major violations of NCAA rules in [Formula: see text] years. Therefore, under the repeat offender clause, their football program was terminated for the 1987–1988 school year, and they chose to take the next season off as well. In the years following the death penalty, the team struggled to find success. Using the synthetic control method, this article measures the cost of the death penalty in terms of athletic performance and the university’s finances.

Introduction

The United States has experienced a period of unprecedented prison population growth and a corresponding growth in people reentering society after incarceration. This growth reflects changes in criminal justice policies, including an increase in the use of prisons and jails as punishment, increases in the length of prison sentences for a broader range of offenses, and adoption of mandatory minimum and repeat-offender sentencing policies. As a result of these policy shifts, more people spend more time incarcerated. This chapter provides a brief overview of the state of reentry research and of the chapters in this volume.

First-Time Offender in Criminology

Having studied criminology textbooks and research publications regarding the personality of the criminal, its classification and typology, the author draws attention to the fact that they discuss the opposition between, on the one hand, repeat crimes and the personality of a repeat offender and, on the other hand, all other crimes and the personality of an offender «in general», rather than fist-time crimes and first-time offenders, which would be more logical. The author concludes that it is necessary not only to counteract repeat crimes but, primarily, to prevent them though a more effective reaction to first-time crime and its subject — a first-time offender. An overview of textbooks and research publications in criminology shows that the topic of first-time offenders, either as an independent object, or in comparison with repeat crimes, is never even outlined. As for special research which could discuss this problem, primarily, research devoted to the personality of the criminal, to repeat offenses, it does not contain any definite information regarding the differences between secondary (repeat) and first-time crimes, or the necessity and expediency of a selective reaction to the first-time offences. Publications devoted to repeat offences, the personality of the repeat offender, limit their object to analyzing the behavioral pattern of persons who already committed a crime in the past and then commit a new crime. Persons without a record of previous convictions who commit a crime, as a rule, stay out of the scope of such research and of criminology in general. The author puts forward an idea that the personality of a first-time offender is not studied in criminology because there seems to be no practical benefit from such work, unlike the benefits of studying the personality of a repeat offender. It is stated that, traditionally, the threat of new crimes from repeat offenders has caused greater concerns than the threat from first-time offenders. The author claims that the solution of the latter problem predetermines the solution of the former as it acts, at least, as one of the most efficient tools that could have an impact on it.

A Repeat Offender of Corruption: South MunaiGas Case Study

ABSTRACT Fraud is a serious and growing international problem, and can greatly affect a company's performance. The current case highlights the impact that culture can have on corporate corruption through the culture of a specific organization, as well as through the broader culture of a society. In this case, Russian NorthOilService (NOS) acquired 98 percent of the shares of the near-bankrupt Kazakh drilling company, South MunaiGas (SMG) in 2007. NOS management realized that SMG's weak financial standing was caused by corporate fraud and corruption, among other factors. Unfortunately, NOS was unable to prevent the new management team of SMG from committing fraud, despite NOS's anti-fraud efforts after acquisition. This actual case study focuses on the accounting and other frauds perpetrated by the SMG management team and the anticorruption measures implemented by NOS. It addresses fraud, bribery, corruption, and misappropriation of assets through inappropriate procurement procedures, in a cultural environment differing substantially from U.S. corporate contexts. This case is suitable for use in auditing, corporate governance, and fraud examination courses.