reduces both moderate and extreme violence. The reason is that a high penalty keeps relatively 'gutless' individuals from … relatively 'tough' individuals to commit moderately violent acts and so makes moderate violence more attractive for otherwise …

We study desensitization to crime in a lab experiment by showing footage of criminal acts to a group of subjects, some … control before and after treated participants watch a series of real, crime-related videos (while the control group watches … non-crime-related videos). Not previously victimized participants exposed to the treatment video show significant changes …

"In this paper we evaluate what economists have learned over the past 40 years about the determinants of crime. We base … crime. Even hypotheses that find some support in U.S. data for recent decades are inconsistent with data over longer … less conventional factors such as abortion or gun laws. The hypothesis that drug prohibition generates violence, however …