Preferences predict who commits crime among young men

Thomas Epper, Ernst Fehr, Kristoffer Balle Hvidberg, Claus Kreiner, Søren Leth-Petersen and Gregers Nytoft Rasmussen
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Thomas Epper: a CNRS, UMR 9221–Lille Economie Management (LEM), 59000 Lille, France;; b IESEG School of Management, UMR 9221–Lille Economie Management (LEM), 59000 Lille, France;; c University of Lille, UMR 9221–Lille Economie Management (LEM), 59000 Lille, France;; d Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark;
Kristoffer Balle Hvidberg: d Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark;
Gregers Nytoft Rasmussen: d Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark;

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022, vol. 119, issue 6, e2112645119

Abstract: Who commits crime? Theoretically, risk-tolerant and impatient people are more likely to commit crime because they care less about the risks of apprehension and punishment. By linking experimental data on risk tolerance and impatience of young men to administrative crime records, we find empirical support for this hypothesis. For example, crime rates are 8 to 10 percentage points higher for the most risk-tolerant people compared to the most risk averse. A theoretical implication is that those who are most prone to commit crime are also those who are least responsive to stricter law enforcement. Risk tolerance and impatience significantly predict property crime, while self-control is a stronger predictor of crimes of passion (violent, drug, and sexual offenses).

Keywords: crime; risk preference; time preference; self-control; altruism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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