The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment

David J. Pyle
Additional contact information
David J. Pyle: University of Leicester

Chapter 4 in The Economics of Crime and Law Enforcement, 1983, pp 63-88 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In the previous chapter we examined a number of empirical studies of the supply of offences function. We now consider in more detail the specific crime of murder. In particular we examine whether or not the death penalty is an effective deterrent to the act of murder. This issue, which was once thought to be settled, has been re-opened following a particularly controversial article by Ehrlich (1975a). One of his principal conclusions was that ‘an additional execution per year over the period in question [1935–69] may have resulted, on average, in 7 or 8 fewer murders’ (p. 414). The publication of this suggested trade-off, admittedly subject to relatively large prediction errors, released a flood of criticism and comment. Many of these comments were highly technical ones aimed at Ehrlich’s data, estimation methods, choice of functional form and model specification. Others, spurred on by Ehrlich’s example, proceeded to estimate murder supply equations using different data sets. One such attempt, by Yunker (1976), produced an even more startling result — that one more execution might prevent no less than 156 murders.

Keywords: Capital Punishment; Criminal Justice System; Deterrent Effect; Homicide Rate; Conviction Rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1983
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-05245-5_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349052455

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-05245-5_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().