title: Status, emotional displays, and the relationally-based evaluation of criminals and their behavior.
abstract: This research uses status characteristics theory to expand our knowledge of the effects of status variables (e.g., race, education) and emotional displays on the antecedents of sentencing - evaluations of offender dangerousness and offense seriousness. We present a theoretical formulation that combines three areas of status characteristics research - reward expectations, individual evaluative settings and valued personal characteristics. The result is a quantitative measure that aggregates relative differences in demographic and emotional characteristics between offenders and their victims. The significance of this expectation advantage measure (e) in predicting evaluations of offender dangerousness and offense severity is tested using data from a vignette study. We find empirical support that expectation advantage significantly predicts these sentencing antecedents but not sentencing outcomes directly. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future status and criminological research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, PO Box 6326, Morgantown, WV 26506, United States. Electronic address: lisa.dilks@mail.wvu.edu.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Dilks
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Tukkiewerf Building, Pretoria 0002, South Africa. Electronic address: tucker.mcgrimmon@up.ac.za.
authors.forename: Tucker S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: McGrimmon
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, Sloan College, Rm. 321, 911 Pickens St., Columbia, SC 29208, United States. Electronic address: srthye@sc.edu.
authors.forename: Shane R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Thye
mesh_terms: D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003416:Criminal Law / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011678:Punishment; D012923:Social Class; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Offender dangerousness; Offender–victim dyad; Offense severity; Sentencing; Status characteristics theory; Valued personal characteristics