Saturday, August 27, 2005
Prison sentences and crime
Long prison sentences have minimal effects on young criminals
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Young offenders aren't necessarily deterred from crime after they turn 18 even when they know they could be slapped with a much longer prison sentence, a new study co-authored by a University of Michigan researcher suggests....
"Our results suggest that offenders are highly impatient and impulsive people. It is hard to deter people with these characteristics from committing crime, just by threatening them with longer sentences," said David S. Lee, who, with McCrary, co-wrote "Crime, Punishment, and Myopia," which appears on the National Bureau of Economic Research website. Lee is an economics professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
Well, yeah. They can't be deterred, so that is why they must be locked up until they are old and feeble and we do not have to worry about deterring them. The authors of the study grope their way toward this conclusion, without actually reaching it (at least in the press release -- I confess that I have not read the study itself, which costs $5 online):
A natural policy implication, McCrary said, would be to spend less money on prison expansion and more money on policing. "Even with highly impatient or myopic criminals, doubling the odds of punishment will double the effective price of crime."
The press release both suggests that long prison sentences do not deter crime, but more policing, which will raise the odds of capture, will deter crime. Increased odds of a short prison sentence is better deterrance than shorter odds of a long sentence? Perhaps true, but I would be amazed if the paper actually demonstrated that.
I think we know the reason why the authors of the paper seem to have deliberately missed the critical point that prison interdicts crime. There's no social science, and therefore no career advancement, in proving that locking criminals up prevents them from committing crimes!
2 Comments:
By 
geoffrobinson, at
Sat Aug 27, 01:22:00 PM:
Sometimes a crimes deserves a punishment. It's not all about rehibilitation/prevention/deterrants.
By 
, at
Thu Nov 06, 06:57:00 AM:
We specialize in laptop battery,laptop AC adapters. All our products are brand new, with the excellent service from our laptop battery of customer service team.
the most convenient and cheap replacement battery online shop in uk. We specialize in laptop batteries,laptop AC adapters.
All our laptop AC adapters are brand new, with the excellent service from our customer service team.
the most convenient and cheap battery online shop in uk.
