More Time, Less Crime? estimating the Incapacitative Effect of Sentence Enhancements
Owens, Emily G.
More Time, Less Crime? estimating the Incapacitative Effect of Sentence Enhancements created by Emily G. Owens - Journal of Law and Economics Volume 52, number 3 .
Sentence enhancements may reduce crime both by deterring potential criminals and by incapacitating previous offenders, removing these possible recidivists from society for longer periods. I estimate the incapacitative effect of longer sentences by exploiting a 2001 change in Maryland's sentencing guidelines that reduced the sentences of 23‐, 24‐, and 25‐year‐olds with juvenile delinquent records by a mean of 222 days. I find that, during this sentence disenhancement, offenders were, on average, arrested for 2.8 criminal acts and were involved in 1.4-1.6 serious crimes per person during the period when they would have otherwise been incarcerated. Although my findings are significantly lower than previous estimates of incapacitation, I find that, on the margin, the social benefit of the crimes averted by incapacitation is slightly higher than the marginal cost to the state of imposing a 1‐year sentence enhancement
00222186
Arrest rates--Criminal punishment--Criminal offenses
Criminal sentencing--Length of sentence--Criminals
Prisoners--Sentenced offenders--Prisons
HB73 JOU
More Time, Less Crime? estimating the Incapacitative Effect of Sentence Enhancements created by Emily G. Owens - Journal of Law and Economics Volume 52, number 3 .
Sentence enhancements may reduce crime both by deterring potential criminals and by incapacitating previous offenders, removing these possible recidivists from society for longer periods. I estimate the incapacitative effect of longer sentences by exploiting a 2001 change in Maryland's sentencing guidelines that reduced the sentences of 23‐, 24‐, and 25‐year‐olds with juvenile delinquent records by a mean of 222 days. I find that, during this sentence disenhancement, offenders were, on average, arrested for 2.8 criminal acts and were involved in 1.4-1.6 serious crimes per person during the period when they would have otherwise been incarcerated. Although my findings are significantly lower than previous estimates of incapacitation, I find that, on the margin, the social benefit of the crimes averted by incapacitation is slightly higher than the marginal cost to the state of imposing a 1‐year sentence enhancement
00222186
Arrest rates--Criminal punishment--Criminal offenses
Criminal sentencing--Length of sentence--Criminals
Prisoners--Sentenced offenders--Prisons
HB73 JOU