{"p"=>["In public and academic debates on criminal policy, public perceptions of crime seriousness are often presented as an indicator of actual crime seriousness. The relevance of these perceptions for informing policy depends, among other factors, on the extent of societal consensus. However, in the last decades, there have been limited measurements of these perceptions and few studies have explored predictors beyond basic socio-demographic characteristics. Against this background, our study examines the importance of personal values in shaping people’s assessments of crime seriousness. We examine the effects of personal values on perceived crime seriousness itself and its two main dimensions, i.e., perceived wrongfulness and perceived harmfulness. We also consider how such values affect the role wrongfulness and harmfulness play in assessing crime seriousness. ", "Drawing on data from 1,099 residents in Flanders (Belgium), our study indicates that personal values have only limited impact on people’s assessments of crime seriousness. Nonetheless, there are some variations across crimes. Most notably, the conservation values of ‘tradition’ (maintaining and preserving cultural, family, or religious traditions) and ‘conformity-rules’ (compliance with rules, laws, and formal obligations) affect seriousness assessments of drug crimes. Our findings also suggest that, regardless of the values people adhere to, they tend to use the principles of wrongfulness and harmfulness similarly in assessing the seriousness of crimes. With regards to the policy relevance of crime seriousness perceptions, our findings alleviate – at least in the case of Flanders – concerns that such perceptions differ substantially according to people’s values, but they do not eliminate other concerns."]}