ABSTRACT
WE AMERICANS SEEM NOT TO BE A NOTABLY LAW-ABIDING PEOPLE. IN A typical year, some 14 million episodes of serious (felonious) crime are reported to law enforcement authorities in the United States, with many million more episodes of minor crime, and with perhaps as many as 21 million additional criminal victimizations which are not formally reported (Maguire & Flanagan, 1991, pp. 251, 353). On any given day, more than 1,000,000 of us are incarcerated in state or Federal prisons as a result of conviction for felony crime, with another nearly 3,250,000 of us in jails or juvenile reformatories or otherwise under the supervision of correctional authorities through probation or parole (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1990, 1991; Maguire & Flanagan, 1991, pp. 564-565, 567, 578, 606; Langan, 1991).
