double dividend in that it reduces both minor offenses and more severe crime. We develop a model of criminal subcultures in … attractive for some people who would otherwise commit more severe crime. If social status is sufficiently important in criminal … subcultures, zero-tolerance reduces crime across the board …

police, public prosecution and courts, respectively, on crime. Using detailed data on the different stages of the criminal … conviction play a major role in explaining the variation of crime rates, while the impact of the severity of punishment is small …

One main motive behind lengthy prison terms for serious crime is to deter potential offenders from engaging in crime …. Yet, economic theory predicts that the scope for punishment as acting as a deterrent depends on how much individuals … discount future events when balancing the immediate utility of the crime and the costs of a potential future punishment. If …

We study peer effects in crime by analyzing co-offending networks. We first provide a credible estimate of peer effects … criminal from each network that reduces total crime by the largest amount.Using longitudinal data, we are able to compare the … disappeared over time, we show that the theoretical predicted crime reduction is close to what is observed in the real world. We …

The trade-off between the immediate returns from committing a crime and the future costs of punishment depends on an … heterogeneity based on age, education, crime type, and nationality. Our estimates imply that the majority of deterrence is derived …