Exploring the perceived effectiveness and strictness of penalties for traffic offences: The influence of prior punishment experience and evaluation perspective (personal vs. general)

Introduction: Previous research has identified the perception of penalties as one of the most important deterrents to road traffic offenses. This study investigated whether the perceived effectiveness and the perceived strictness of penalties for different traffic offenses are associated with prior punishment experience and evaluation perspective (personal – if participants were being punished themselves, vs. general – for punishing all drivers). Method: A convenience sample of 1,374 Lithuanian drivers participated in the survey (56.3% males; aged 18–77 years). Among them, 801 participants had no penalties for traffic offenses, 333 reported monetary fines in the last year, and 240 reported having their drivers license suspended at least once in their driving career. A scale with 10 specific penalties for traffic offenses was developed to measure the perceived effectiveness and strictness of penalties. Half of the participants evaluated the penalties as if they were personally sanctioned for each traffic offense (personal perspective), while the other half assessed the effectiveness and strictness of the penalties for drivers in general. Results: The results indicated that the perceived effectiveness of penalties was related to the evaluation perspective, being higher for changing one’s own behavior than for changing behavior in general. However, the perceived effectiveness of penalties was not related to prior punishment experience. Males and drivers who had experienced their license being suspended reported the highest perceived strictness of the penalties, whereas females and drivers with no prior punishment experience perceived penalties as the least strict. Practical applications: These findings suggest the need for developing new ways of communicating penalties to different groups of drivers. Nevertheless, this research was exploratory in nature and further research is warranted.