Impatient, risk-takers are more likely to commit acts of gratuitous violence on a weekend night-out, a Cardiff University study has found.
Researchers from Cardiff University investigating night-time street offending found that those on the street and prone to violence were more impatient and less risk-averse than the average person surveyed.
Violence-prone individuals also believed the chance of a violent offender being convicted was lower than the non-violent majority thought. Their estimate of the likely fine for violent behaviour was lower as well.
Surprisingly, victims of violence shared the characteristics of the violence-prone of being less risk-averse and more impatient.
“Our results show that street violence originates in the choices of the perpetrators and their judgements about what they can get away with,” said Professor Foreman-Peck from Cardiff University’s Business School, who jointly led the study, “What this study suggests is that if we can influence these choices, by making individuals less impatient or less inclined to gamble, or by altering their perceptions of the likelihood and severity of punishment, then we will reduce the amount of gratuitous street violence in the evenings” he added.
People were asked about their attitudes to time and to risk with a series of hypothetical choices. They were also asked if they had resorted to violence in the past 12 months.
The research was undertaken by Professor James Foreman-Peck of Cardiff Business School and Dr Simon Moore, of the University’s School of Dentistry and published in the June edition of the International Review of Law and Economics.
Dr Moore from Cardiff University’s Violence & Society Research Group, said: “Through understanding factors that influence violence we can begin to develop novel methods to reduce violence in our communities.
“Our work takes an established model into a high priority but difficult and hard to research area, street violence. Given the high levels of assault related injury in our A&E departments, and levels of re-offending in prisoners continues to remain above 70% our approach offers a refreshing alternative to the usual forensic psychology approach that really gets to the heart of the problem.”
