The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: Evidence from a "Judicial Experiment"

Hashem Dezhbakhsh and Joanna M. Shepherd

Economic Inquiry, 2006, vol. 44, issue 3, pages 512-535

Abstract: We use panel data for 50 states during the 1960--2000 period to examine the deterrent effect of capital punishment, using the moratorium as a "judicial experiment." We compare murder rates immediately before and after changes in states' death penalty laws, drawing on cross-state variations in the timing and duration of the moratorium. The regression analysis supplementing the before-and-after comparisons disentangles the effect of lifting the moratorium on murder from the effect of actual executions on murder. Results suggest that capital punishment has a deterrent effect, and that executions have a distinct effect which compounds the deterrent effect of merely (re)instating the death penalty. The finding is robust across 96 regression models. (JEL C1, K1) Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

JEL-codes: C1 K1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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