Crime, punishment, and myopia
By: David S. Lee, Justin McCrary.
Contributors: McCrary, Justin.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 11491; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 11491.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Criminal behavior.; Recidivism.; Punishment in crime deterrence.; Economic man.
Description: "Economic theory predicts that increasing the severity of punishments will deter criminal behavior by raising the expected price of committing crime.  This implicit price can be substantially raised by making prison sentences longer, but only if offenders' discount rates are relatively low.  We use a large sample of felony arrests to measure the deterrence effect of criminal sanctions.  We exploit the fact that young offenders are legally treated as adults--and face longer lengths of incarceration--the day they turn 18.  Sufficiently patient individuals should therefore significantly lower their offending rates immediately upon turning 18.  The small behavioral responses that we estimate suggest that potential offenders are extremely impatient, myopic, or both"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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Mode of access: World Wide Web.