This paper investigates how different outcomes of criminal appeals impact crime deterrence. My panel data analysis … (1997-2013) indicates that crime rates decrease when convictions are affirmed by the appellate court, as long as conviction … rates are not too high. Crime rates are further found to decrease when convictions are reversed but increase when cases are …

impact of incarceration on recidivism show that, in marginal cases, incarceration creates large and lasting reductions in … recidivism among first offenders. Yet, among repeat offenders, incarceration sentences for marginal offenders create only modest …

This paper proposes a test of racial bias in capital sentencing based upon patterns of judicial errors in lower courts …

The trade-off between the immediate returns from committing a crime and the future costs of punishment depends on an … in Italy and provide non-parametric evidence on the extent of discounting from the raw data on recidivism and sentence … length. Using a discrete-choice model of recidivism, we estimate an average annual discount factor of 0.74, although there is …

estimates of the causal effects of misdemeanor prosecution on defendants' subsequent criminal justice involvement. We leverage … case should move forward with prosecution in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in Massachusetts. These ADAs … vary in the average leniency of their prosecution decisions. We find that, for the marginal defendant, nonprosecution of a …