Judge, Jury, and Executioner...
Edward Peter Stringham & Todd Zywicki
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
Should law be provided centrally by the state or by some other means? Even relatively staunch advocates of competition such as Friedrich Hayek believe that the state must provide law centrally. This article asks whether Hayek's theories about competition and the use of knowledge in society should lead one to support centrally provided law enforcement or competition in law. In writing about economics, Hayek famously described the competitive process of the market as a "discovery process." In writing about law, Hayek coincidentally referred to the role of the judge under the common law as "discovering" the law in the expectations and conventions of people in a given society. We argue that this consistent usage was more than a mere semantic coincidence - that the two concepts of discovery are remarkably similar in Hayek's thought and that his idea of economic discovery influenced his later ideas about legal discovery. Moreover, once this conceptual similarity is recognized, certain conclusions logically follow: namely, that just as economic discovery requires the competitive process of the market to provide information and feedback to correct errors, competition in the provision of legal services is essential to the judicial discovery in law. In fact, the English common law, from which Hayek drew his model of legal discovery, was itself a model of polycentric and competing sources of law throughout much of its history. We conclude that for the same reasons that made Hayek a champion of market competition over central planning of the economy, he should have also supported competition in legal services over monopolistic provision by the state - in short, Hayek should have been an anarchist.
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Political Consequences of the Carceral State
Vesla Weaver & Amy Lerman
American Political Science Review, November 2010, Pages 817-833
Abstract:
Contact with the criminal justice system is greater today than at any time in our history. In this article, we argue that interactions with criminal justice are an important source of political socialization, in which the lessons that are imprinted are antagonistic to democratic participation and inspire negative orientations toward government. To test this argument, we conduct the first systematic empirical exploration of how criminal justice involvement shapes the citizenship and political voice of a growing swath of Americans. We find that custodial involvement carries with it a substantial civic penalty that is not explained by criminal propensity or socioeconomic differences alone. Given that the carceral state has become a routine site of interaction between government and citizens, institutions of criminal justice have emerged as an important force in defining citizen participation and understandings, with potentially dire consequences for democratic ideals.
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Rethinking America's Illegal Drug Policy
John Donohue, Benjamin Ewing & David Peloquin
NBER Working Paper, February 2011
Abstract:
This paper provides a critical review of the empirical and theoretical literatures on illegal drug policy, including cross-country comparisons, in order to evaluate three drug policy regimes: criminalization, legalization and "depenalization." Drawing on the experiences of various states, as well as countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands, the paper attempts to identify cost-minimizing policies for marijuana and cocaine by assessing the differing ways in which the various drug regimes would likely change the magnitude and composition of the social costs of each drug. The paper updates and evaluates Jeffrey Miron's 1999 national time series analysis of drug prohibition spending and the homicide rate, which underscores the lack of a solid empirical base for assessing the theoretically anticipated crime drop that would come from drug legalization. Nonetheless, the authors conclude that given the number of arrests for marijuana possession, and the costs of incarceration and crime systemic to cocaine criminalization, the current regime is unlikely to be cost-minimizing for either marijuana or cocaine.
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A Heavy Thumb on the Scale: The Effect of Victim Impact Evidence on Capital Decision Making
Ray Paternoster & Jerome Deise
Criminology, February 2011, Pages 129-161
Abstract:
The past several decades have seen the emergence of a movement in the criminal justice system that has called for a greater consideration for the rights of victims. One manifestation of this movement has been the "right" of victims or victims' (1991). The dissenters in that case argued that such evidence only would arouse the emotions of jurors and bias them in favor of imposing death. A body of research in behavioral economics on the "identifiable victim effect" families Payne v. Tennessee and the "identifiable wrongdoer effect" would have supported to speak to the sentencing body through what are called victim impact statements about the value of the victim and the full harm that the offender has created. Although victim impact statements have been a relatively noncontroversial part of regular criminal trials, their presence in capital cases has had a more contentious history. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned previous decisions and explicitly permitted victim impact testimony in capital cases in such a view. Using a randomized controlled experiment with a death-eligible sample of potential jurors and the videotape of an actual penalty trial in which victim impact evidence (VIE) was used, we found that these concerns about VIE are perhaps well placed. Subjects who viewed VIE testimony in the penalty phase were more likely to feel negative emotions like anger, hostility, and vengeance; were more likely to feel sympathy and empathy toward the victim; and were more likely to have favorable perceptions of the victim and victim's family as well as unfavorable perceptions of the offender. We found that these positive feelings toward the victim and family were in turn related to a heightened risk of them imposing the death penalty. We found evidence that part of the effect of VIE on the decision to impose death was mediated by emotions of sympathy and empathy. We think our findings open the door for future work to put together better the causal story that links VIE to an increased inclination to impose death as well as explore possible remedies.
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Intervening in gun markets: An experiment to assess the impact of targeted gun-law messaging
Greg Ridgeway et al.
Journal of Experimental Criminology, March 2011, Pages 103-109
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to assess whether targeting new gun buyers with a public safety message aimed at improving gun law awareness can modify gun purchasers' behaviors. Between May 2007 and September 2008, 2,120 guns were purchased in two target neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles. Starting in August 2007, gun buyers initiating transactions on odd-numbered days received a letter signed by prominent law enforcement officials, indicating that law enforcement had a record of their gun purchase and that the gun buyer should properly record future transfers of the gun. The letters arrived during buyers' 10-day waiting periods, before they could legally return to the store to collect their new gun. Subsequent gun records were extracted to assess the letter's effect on legal secondary sales, reports of stolen guns, and recovery of the gun in a crime. An intent-to-treat analysis was also conducted as a sensitivity check to remedy a lapse in the letter program between May and August 2007. The letter appears to have no effect on the legal transfer rate or on the short-term rate of guns subsequently turning up in a crime. However, we found that the rate at which guns are reported stolen for those who received the letter is more than twice the rate for those who did not receive the letter (p value = 0.01). Those receiving the letter reported their gun stolen at a rate of 18 guns per 1,000 gun-years and those not receiving the letter reported their gun stolen at a rate of 7 guns per 1,000 gun-years. Of those receiving the letter, 1.9% reported their gun stolen during the study period compared to 1.0% for those who did not receive the letter. The percentage of guns reported stolen in these neighborhoods is high, indicating a high rate of true gun theft, a regular practice of using stolen-gun reports to separate the gun buyer from future misuse of the gun, or some blend of both. Simple, targeted gun law awareness campaigns can modify new gun buyers' behaviors. Additional follow-up or modifications to this initiative might be needed to impact the rate at which guns enter the illegal gun market and ultimately are recovered in crimes.
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A Theory of "Crying Wolf": The Economics of Money Laundering Enforcement
Előd Takáts
Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, April 2011, Pages 32-78
Abstract:
The article shows how excessive reporting, called "crying wolf", can dilute the information value of reports and how more reports can mean less information. Excessive reporting is investigated by undertaking the first formal analysis of money laundering enforcement. Banks monitor transactions and report suspicious activity to government agencies, which use these reports to identify investigation targets. Banks face fines should they fail to report money laundering. However, excessive fines force banks to report transactions which are less suspicious. The empirical evidence is shown to be consistent with the model's predictions. The model is used to suggest implementable corrective policy measures, such as decreasing fines and introducing reporting fees.
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Prison Reform through Federal Legislative Intervention: The Case of the Prison Rape Elimination Act
Robert Schuhmann & Eric Wodahl
Criminal Justice Policy Review, March 2011, Pages 111-128
Abstract:
Inmates have long been considered one of the most politically disenfranchised groups in the United States. Not surprisingly, the well-being of the incarcerated has rarely been considered a high priority for federal policymakers. The passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA), however, reveals that reform through traditional policy making channels is attainable. The passage of PREA has provided reformers with more than optimism. It provides a roadmap for future efforts to transform prison conditions through legislative intervention. This manuscript explores the lessons learned from PREA's success by identifying the traditional barriers to federal legislative prison reform and examining how PREA was able to navigate these obstacles and secure passage without a single "no" vote in the U.S. Congress. Special attention is given to the important role of evangelicals in the passage of this legislation.
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Victim-Based Effects on Racially Disparate Sentencing in Ohio
John Wooldredge et al.
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, March 2011, Pages 85-117
Abstract:
Scholars have argued that African-American men accused of violently victimizing whites receive especially harsh treatment in court. This thesis was tested with samples of felony defendants processed in Ohio courts before and after the implementation of sentencing guidelines. During the preguideline period only, African-American men accused of victimizing whites were less likely than other defendants to plead guilty in exchange for reduced charges and/or sentences, and African-American men incarcerated for violent crimes against whites received longer sentences than other incarcerated offenders. During the postguideline period only, by contrast, the odds of pleading guilty in exchange for reduced charges were actually higher for African-American men accused of victimizing whites. African-American male prison terms significantly declined relative to incarcerated whites from the preguideline to the postguideline period. The interaction effect of defendant-victim race was significant during the preguideline period, not significant in the postguideline period, and significantly changed over time.
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Iris Blandn-Gitlin, Katheryn Sperry & Richard Leo
Psychology, Crime & Law, March 2011, Pages 239-260
Abstract:
Situational factors - in the form of interrogation tactics - have been reported to unduly influence innocent suspects to confess. This study assessed jurors' perceptions of these factors and tested whether expert witness testimony on confessions informs jury decision making. In Study 1, jurors rated interrogation tactics on their level of coerciveness and likelihood that each would elicit true and false confessions. Most jurors perceived interrogation tactics to be coercive and likely to elicit confessions from guilty, but not from innocent suspects. This result motivated Study 2 in which an actual case involving a disputed confession was used to assess the influence of expert testimony on jurors' perceptions and evaluations of interrogations and confession evidence. The results revealed an important influence of expert testimony on mock-jurors decisions.
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Sex Offender Community Notification Laws: Are Their Effects Symbolic or Instrumental in Nature?
Lisa Sample, Mary Evans & Amy Anderson
Criminal Justice Policy Review, March 2011, Pages 27-49
Abstract:
Researchers interested in public policy have noted that laws may have a symbolic or an instrumental function. The example of sex offender legislation is used to look for both instrumental and symbolic effects of this legislation. Although the symbolic effects of sex offender legislation have been examined by prior research, less is known about the instrumental effects of this legislation. This research examines the instrumental functions of sex offender legislation using survey data that asked about whether members of the public have checked the sex offender registry and the reasons behind their answer. The findings of this study suggest largely symbolic effects of sex offender registry legislation, and implications of this finding are discussed.
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Carrie Trojan & Gabrielle Salfati
Homicide Studies, February 2011, Pages 3-31
Abstract:
Research has consistently shown that the average individual who commits one or more homicides is likely to have a criminal record, but little research has focused on whether individuals behave in a psychologically or thematically consistent way in both their homicide crime scene actions and prior offending. The current study examines the crime scene behaviors of single and serial homicide offenders to identify patterns that can be compared to themes in their prior offending. The results showed that crime scene actions occurred on a continuum from hostile to cognitive actions with serial offenders concentrating at the latter end of this continuum. However, only a small group of the serial homicide offenders committed similarly themed prior offenses and homicide behaviors, which raises questions regarding the hypotheses of behavioral consistency underlying offender profiling.
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Laura Braslow & Ross Cheit
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, March 2011, Pages 24-47
Abstract:
Most jurisdictions allow criminal defendants to bring postconviction sentence reduction or modification motions, asking that the original sentencing judge reconsider legal sentences that they initially imposed. The ability to reconsider sentences could be an avenue for mercy, but the virtually unfettered discretion given to judges under these rules could also be an invitation to abuse, or a mechanism for back-door sentencing. This study seeks to empirically examine the practice of sentence reduction in the Rhode Island superior court system. Based on a universe sample of all cases where motions to reduce sentence were brought over a five-year period, this study utilizes multivariate models to isolate the determinants of motion outcomes. The study finds that a range of variables influence the outcome of sentence reduction motions, but regression analysis finds that, holding all else equal, the individual judges themselves are the most significant factor determining whether motions are granted or denied. This conclusion raises a number of questions relative to equal access to postconviction relief and equal treatment of criminal defendants in the context of judicial discretion.
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Douglas Yearwood & Gerry Koinis
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Numerous researchers have questioned the use of the unemployment rate as an explanatory factor in econometric studies which address the relationship between the economy and crime. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study which sought to test the efficacy of the unemployment rate for predicting reported property crime rates and to identify other economic indicators which may also prove to be useful for predicting crimes with economic under tones or motives. Specifically, larceny-theft, burglary, motor vehicle theft, robbery, fraud and embezzlement. Given the exploratory nature of the study seven stepwise regressions were computed with unemployment emerging as a significant predictor for only one of the criminal offenses. Findings identified other useful economic variables, such as average wage and salary disbursements, supplemental security income receipts, the consumer price index and per capita personal income which should be considered in lieu of unemployment rates.
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Participation in the Prison Economy and Likelihood of Physical Victimization
Heith Copes et al.
Victims & Offenders, January 2011, Pages 1-18
Abstract:
The prison economy provides an outlet for inmates to secure goods and services not formally available to them while incarcerated. While having access is beneficial, participation in the economy may increase people's chances of being victimized. The current study seeks to elaborate on the linkages between participation in the prison economy and violent victimization by drawing from survey data collected from 208 recently released male parolees in a Midwestern state. The results show that several measures of participation in the prison economy significantly predict violent victimizations, net the effect of other relevant independent variables. These findings suggest that engaging and controlling the prison economy may be effective in reducing the overall amount of violence that occurs in correctional facilities.
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The Trial Penalty and Jury Sentencing: A Study of Air Force Courts-Martial
Patricia Breen
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, March 2011, Pages 206-235
Abstract:
The sentencing empirical literature generally supports the notion that most defendants plead guilty because judges impose more severe sentences for those who assert their Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. Whether this trial penalty effect is present in jury sentencing jurisdictions has been rarely investigated. King and Noble (2004, 2005) presented evidence suggesting that in practice, jury sentencing assists prosecutors and judges in maintaining a trial penalty or plea discount system. The present study investigates whether a trial penalty exists in the military-a jury sentencing jurisdiction that offers jury sentencing after a guilty plea as well as a trial. Using Air Force court-martial data from 2005-2006, the study finds no trial penalty effect and that juries are less likely to impose severe types of punishment compared to judges. The study discusses implications for public policy, theory, and future research.
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Violent criminals locked up: Examining the effect of incarceration on behavioral continuity
Jon Sorensen & Jaya Davis
Journal of Criminal Justice, forthcoming
Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to determine whether, and the degree to which, inmates committing specific types of violent crimes in the community were prone to commit acts of violence while incarcerated.
Materials and methods: Data were collected from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on the prison stock population and a restricted admissions cohort serving time during FY 2008.
Results: After controlling for pre-prison and post-conviction characteristics, crime of conviction retained a modest degree of influence on inmates' propensity to commit dangerous rule violations in prison. Inmates convicted of assault, robbery and other miscellaneous violent crimes were more likely to commit dangerous rule infractions than inmates convicted of property crimes, supporting the behavioral continuity thesis. Inmates convicted of homicide were no more likely, and those convicted of sexual assault less likely, to commit dangerous rule violations in comparison to those convicted of property crimes.
Conclusions: The findings suggest that researchers and prison officials should not view all inmates convicted of one of a broad category of "violent crimes" in the community as being equivalent in their propensity for violence while incarcerated.
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Prisoner Survival Inside and Outside of the Institution: Implications for Health-Care Planning
Anne Spaulding et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, 1 March 2011, Pages 479-487
Abstract:
The life expectancy of persons cycling through the prison system is unknown. The authors sought to determine the 15.5-year survival of 23,510 persons imprisoned in the state of Georgia on June 30, 1991. After linking prison and mortality records, they calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs). The cohort experienced 2,650 deaths during follow-up, which were 799 more than expected (SMR = 1.43, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.38, 1.49). Mortality during incarceration was low (SMR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.77, 0.94), while postrelease mortality was high (SMR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.48, 1.61). SMRs varied by race, with black men exhibiting lower relative mortality than white men. Black men were the only demographic subgroup to experience significantly lower mortality while incarcerated (SMR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.76), while white men experienced elevated mortality while incarcerated (SMR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.48). Four causes of death (homicide, transportation, accidental poisoning, and suicide) accounted for 74% of the decreased mortality during incarceration, while 6 causes (human immunodeficiency virus infection, cancer, cirrhosis, homicide, transportation, and accidental poisoning) accounted for 62% of the excess mortality following release. Adjustment for compassionate releases eliminated the protective effect of incarceration on mortality. These results suggest that the low mortality inside prisons can be explained by the rarity of deaths unlikely to occur in the context of incarceration and compassionate releases of moribund patients.
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Hispanic Victims and Homicide Clearance by Arrest
Aki Roberts & Christopher Lyons
Homicide Studies, February 2011, Pages 48-73
Abstract:
When applied to homicide clearance by arrest, the victim-devaluing perspective posits that police favor higher-social status victims by allocating greater investigative effort to their cases. Previous studies have measured social status via a dichotomous race variable (White vs. Black, White vs. non-White, or non-Hispanic White vs. racial/ ethnic minority). As the Hispanic population grows in the United States, it is increasingly important to extend homicide clearance research beyond the traditional questions of dichotomous racial/ethnic differences. Using 2000-2007 homicide data from agencies that report victim's ethnicity to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the current study examines the impact of victim's race/ethnicity on homicide clearance by arrest via a trichomotous measure (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, or Hispanic). Event history analysis found that, controlling for other incident characteristics, homicides with Hispanic victims had a lower risk of clearance by arrest than those with non-Hispanic White or non-Hispanic Black v ictims.
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Darrell Steffensmeier et al.
Criminology, February 2011, Pages 197-251
Abstract:
Recent studies suggest a decline in the relative Black effect on violent crime in recent decades and interpret this decline as resulting from greater upward mobility among African Americans during the past several decades. However, other assessments of racial stratification in American society suggest at least as much durability as change in Black social mobility since the 1980s. Our goal is to assess how patterns of racial disparity in violent crime and incarceration have changed from 1980 to 2008. We argue that prior studies showing a shrinking Black share of violent crime might be in error because of reliance on White and Black national crime statistics that are confounded with Hispanic offenders, whose numbers have been increasing rapidly and whose violence rates are higher than that of Whites but lower than that of Blacks. Using 1980-2008 California and New York arrest data to adjust for this "Hispanic effect" in national Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) data, we assess whether the observed national decline in racial disparities in violent crime is an artifact of the growth in Hispanic populations and offenders. Results suggest that little overall change has occurred in the Black share of violent offending in both UCR and NCVS estimates during the last 30 years. In addition, racial imbalances in arrest versus incarceration levels across the index violent crimes are both small and comparably sized across the study period. We conclude by discussing the consistency of these findings with trends in economic and social integration of Blacks in American society during the past 50 years.
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Assessing the effectiveness of mental health courts: A quantitative review
Christine Sarteschi, Michael Vaughn & Kevin Kim
Journal of Criminal Justice, January-February 2011, Pages 12-20
Purpose: The purpose of this review is to quantitatively review the accumulating MHC studies that have been conducted of both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed studies. The primary objective of the current study is to provide a clearer picture as to whether MHCs are an empirically efficacious intervention for a significant health and criminological problem.
Methods: This study used meta-analytic techniques to assess the effectiveness of MHCs. A systematic search of the literature and electronic databases through July 2009, as well as an e-mail survey of mental health court program directors, generated 18 studies.
Results: Aggregate effects for recidivism outcomes revealed a mean effect size of -0.54 and -0.55 among quasi-experimental studies analyzed separately. There was a positive improvement among a limited number of clinical outcomes.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that MHCs are an effective intervention but this assertion is not definitive. Methodologically, many of the studies are not as strong as would be ideal thus limiting our conclusions.
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Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender's Decision to Confess to the Police
Nadine Deslauriers-Varin, Patrick Lussier & Michel St-Yves
Justice Quarterly, February 2011, Pages 113-145
Abstract:
Confessions are crucial to successful police investigations but scholars have significantly overlooked factors that contribute to an offender's decision to confess a crime. This study aims to examine a large array of factors that play a role in the offender's decision to confess a crime to the police and potential interaction effect among them. A total of 221 adult males incarcerated in a federal Canadian penitentiary were recruited. Correctional files, police reports, and offenders' self-reported data were collected and analyzed. Controlling for sociodemographic, criminological, and contextual factors, a series of logistic regression analyses were conducted. Findings highlighted the predominant role of police evidence over and above other factors analyzed. Furthermore, sociodemographic and criminological factors played a more important role in the offender's decision to confess when police evidence was weak. Findings are discussed in light of the current scientific literature on the determinants of offenders' decision to confess their crime.