Citation

Stallings RP, Ward KC. Crim. Justice Stud. Crit. J. Crime Law Soc. 2017; 30(4): 346-364.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1478601X.2017.1364640

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It has been argued that sports act as a social institution in the United States, encompassing many network headlines and reports. Resulting from the popularization of sports entertainment has been an enhanced insight into the criminal behavior of professional athletes. This research sought to understand how the general public perceives alleged professional athlete criminality. Utilizing household mail surveys with residents in Pennsylvania, respondents rated the seriousness, wrongness, and punitiveness of alleged athlete criminality depicted in five different vignettes.

RESULTS indicated that the strongest predictor of attitudes between professional athletes and non-athletes was offense type; more specifically gambling, which this sample rated more serious and wrong for professional athletes compared to non-athletes. This indicated that alleged offenses that may be perceived as attacking the integrity of the sport may be viewed more harshly.

Language: en

Keywords

crime; factorial surveys; mixed modeling; professional athletes; Public perceptions; punishment