penalty to the severity of the crime. We combine individual-level data on sentence length for a representative sample of US … inmates with proxies for maximum punishment and monitoring costs across US states over 50 years. Consistent with the theory of …

intriguing facts that challenge some of the conventional crime hypotheses. For instance, in forty years homicides quadrupled by …/implications - The punishment approach is not sufficient in explaining and reducing the high level of homicides. The economic inequality …

Whether punishment promotes or deters future criminal activity by the convicted offender is a key public policy concern … networks in prison. On the other hand, greater initial punishment may have a deterrence effect on the individual being punished …

, and we instrument the punishment faced by a ticketed driver with the stopping officer's average lenience towards other …