Utilizing personal values to explain people’s attitudes towards legal norms
| Author | Wolfgang Bilsky,Ingwer Borg,Dieter Hermann |
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820913237 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370820913237
European Journal of Criminology
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370820913237
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Utilizing personal values to
explain people’s attitudes
towards legal norms
Wolfgang Bilsky
Ingwer Borg
University of Münster, Germany
Dieter Hermann
Heidelberg University, Germany
Abstract
The aim of this study is to clarify whether personal values explain delinquents’ and non-
delinquents’ general attitudes towards legal norms. We expect that 10 basic personal values form
a circular scale common to all individuals, both delinquents and non-delinquents, that people’s
ratings of the importance of these 10 values predict their norm acceptance in a sinusoidal way,
with higher predictability for delinquents, and that the correlations of personal values with norm
acceptance are highest for those delinquents with a broad spectrum of offences. Finally, we
expect that gender does not have an impact on these profiles, whereas controlling for age does.
Our analyses are based on four studies on community crime prevention. The results are in line
with the above expectations.
Keywords
Values, norm acceptance, delinquency, MDS, sinusoid curve hypothesis
Introduction
Criminological research has made considerable progress in investigating the relationship
between personal values, norm acceptance and delinquency (for example, Boers and
Pöge, 2003; Goossen et al., 2016; Halpern, 2001; Hermann, 2003; Konty, 2005; Pöge,
2017; Reinecke, 2007; Seddig, 2014). The theory on universals in values (TUV) of
Corresponding author:
Wolfgang Bilsky, Institute of Psychology, University of Münster, Fliednerstrasse 21, Münster, 48149,
Germany.
Email: bilsky@uni-muenster.de
913237EUC0010.1177/1477370820913237European Journal of CriminologyBilsky et al.
research-article2020
Article
2022, Vol. 19(4) 632–652
Schwartz (1992), however, played only a minor role in this context (see Goossen et al.,
2016, for an exception). Bilsky and Hermann (2016) recently reinterpreted Hermann’s
research on ‘values and delinquency’ (2003) against the background of the TUV. They
showed that the correlational profiles of the 10 basic values distinguished by the TUV
with both norm acceptance and self-reported delinquency exhibit a sinusoidal shape,
where values of the ‘conservation’ and ‘openness’ type (Schwartz, 1992) and norm
acceptance proved to be effective predictors of self-reported delinquency. Building on
these findings and four studies on community crime prevention, we clarify in this study
whether and to what extent personal values are suitable for explaining differences in
general attitudes towards legal norms. In this context, people who differ with respect to
past delinquency are of particular interest.
Personal values
The TUV is a well-established value theory today (for example, Bilsky et al., 2011; Janik
and Bilsky, 2015; Schwartz, 2003). It defines values as ‘desirable, transsituational goals,
varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives’ (Schwartz,
2003: 267). The structure of different values is derived from assuming that the individual
perceives actions taken in the pursuit of any one value as more or less compatible or
conflicting with successfully striving for other values. Theoretically and empirically, this
leads to a circle of values, where values similar with respect to their motivational content
are located side by side on this circle and incompatibles opposite to each other. The order
of the basic values on the TUV value circle has been found to be universalism – benevo-
lence – tradition – conformity – security – power – achievement – hedonism – stimula-
tion – self-direction – universalism (Schwartz, 1992, 2003; see Figure 1). The TUV
model also distinguishes between four higher-order values, grouping certain neighbour-
ing basic values into opposite segments of the value circle: self-transcendence (with the
Figure 1. Idealized schematic Schwartz value circle.
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Bilsky et al.
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