Dimensions of aggression: the perception of aggressive episodes

The perception of real-life aggressive episodes was studied, in order to (a) represent the cognitive dimensions used by judges to differentiate between such episodes, (b) to evaluate the perceived differences between different categories of episodes, and (c) to assess the effects of the judges' age, sex and attitudes on their cognitive representation of aggressive episodes. Judgements of 22 aggressive episodes selected from a free-response pilot study were analysed by Carroll & Chang's (1970) INDSCAL procedure, and differences between categories of episodes and groups of judges were evaluated by multiple discriminant analyses. Results indicated that (a) four cognitive dimensions, probability of occurrence, justifiability, emotional provocation, and control, defined the psychological map for aggressive episodes; (b) domestic against public, drunken and non-drunken, criminal against non-criminal episodes were significantly differentiated in this perceptual space; (c) the judges' age, sex and Machiavellism scores were related to their perception of such episodes. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of implicit perceptions of aggression and crime in the criminal justice system. Specifically, it is suggested that similar techniques could be used to (a) gauge popular perceptions of crime as an input to the legislative process, and (b) for the study of perceptions of aggressive episodes by such crucial groups in the criminal justice system as policemen, judges, jury members, victims and offenders.