Journal ArticleDOI
Proposition 8 and crime rates in california: the case of the disappearing deterrent
TLDR
Kempe and Levitt as mentioned in this paper showed that the crime drop in California began before, rather than after, the passing into law of the sentence enhancements in 1982 and the downward slope did not accelerate after the change in law.Abstract:
Research Summary:
In 1999, Daniel Kessler and Steven Levitt published an article that purported to provide support for the marginal deterrent effects of harsher sanctions on levels of crime. Specifically, they concluded that sentence enhancements that came into effect in California in June 1982 as a result of Proposition 8 were responsible for a subsequent drop in serious crime in this state. Our article examines the analyses and findings of this article and suggests that their conclusion of a deterrent impact fails to withstand scrutiny when more complete and more detailed crime data are used and the comparability of “control” groups is carefully examined. In particular, the addition of annual crime levels for all years (versus only the odd-numbered years that Kessler and Levitt examine) calls into question the prima facie support for a deterrent effect presented by Kessler and Levitt. Specifically, it demonstrates not only that the crime drop in California began before, rather than after, the passing into law of the sentence enhancements in 1982 but also that the downward slope did not accelerate after the change in law. Furthermore, the comparability of the two “control” groups with the “treatment” group is challenged, rendering suspect any findings based on these comparisons.
Policy Implications:
Case studies suggesting that crime decreased after the imposition of harsh sentencing policies are often cited as evidence of marginal general deterrence. As has been demonstrated in other contexts, the question that needs to be asked is “Compared with what?” Kessler and Levitt's (1999) article demonstrates that those interested in sentencing policy need to be sensitive not only to the appropriateness of the comparisons that are made, but also to the choice of data that are presented.read more
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BookDOI
The growth of incarceration in the United States: exploring causes and consequences
TL;DR: Part of the courts, criminal law, criminal procedure, criminology, Law and Society Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, Legislation Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, and the Race and Ethnicity Commons.
Journal ArticleDOI
Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century
TL;DR: The evidence in support of the deterrent effect of the certainty of punishment is far more consistent than that for the severity of punishment as mentioned in this paper, however, the evidence in supporting certainty's effect pertains almost exclusively to apprehension probability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Criminal Deterrence: A Review of the Literature
Aaron Chalfin,Justin McCrary +1 more
TL;DR: The authors review economics research regarding the effect of police, punishments, and work on crime, with a particular focus on papers from the last twenty years, and discuss fruitful directions for future work and implications for public policy.
Journal ArticleDOI
Imprisonment and crime
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that it is a realistic possibility that crime, prison costs, and imprisonment numbers can be simultaneously reduced by sanction policies that reduce both crime and punishment with the desirable feature of avoiding both costs of crime and the costs of administering punishment.
Book
Why Are So Many Americans in Prison
Steven Raphael,Michael A. Stoll +1 more
TL;DR: The United States currently incarcerates its residents at a rate that is greater than every other country in the world as discussed by the authors, which is the highest among all the member states of the European Community.
References
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Posted Content
Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory of participation in illegitimate activities is developed and tested against data on variations in index crimes across states in the United States and behavioral implications are derived using the state preference approach to behavior under uncertainty.
Journal ArticleDOI
Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation
TL;DR: In this article, a theory of participation in illegitimate activities is developed and tested against data on variations in index crimes across states in the United States and behavioral implications are derived using the state preference approach to behavior under uncertainty.
Journal ArticleDOI
Deterrence and incapacitation : estimating the effects of criminal sanctions on crime rates
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