NCJ Number
89855
Journal
British Journal of Social Psychology Volume: 21 Issue: 3 Dated: (1982) Pages: 231-238
Date Published
1982
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper hypothesizes that preconventional moral reasoning will be associated only with crimes in which offenders believe they have a good chance of evading punishment.
Abstract
In two studies, prisoners whose current offense is of this type are shown to use more preconventional moral judgment than either other offenders or nonoffenders. Many studies have investigated the relationship of Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning to criminal behavior, the consensual finding being that known delinquents tend to use less advanced forms of moral reasoning than control subjects. An assumption common to most of these studies is that moral stage relates equivalently to all forms of criminal behavior. This paper argues that this assumption is incompatible with cognitive-developmental theory as elaborated by Kohlberg, since the theory implies that developmentally primitive moralities will be associated with delinquent behavior only to the extent that the behavior in question is differently evaluated at the different moral stages. Tables, footnotes, and 22 references are included. (Author abstract modified)