EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Crime, Broken Families, and Punishment

Emeline Bezin, Thierry Verdier and Yves Zenou

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 723-60

Abstract: We develop a two-period overlapping generations model in which both the family structure and the decision to commit crime are endogenous and the dynamics of moral norms of good conduct is transmitted intergenerationally by families and peers. By "destroying" biparental families and putting fathers in prison, we show that more intense crime repression can backfire because it increases the possibility that criminals' sons become criminals themselves. Our model also explains the emergence and persistence of urban ghettos characterized by a large proportion of broken families, high crime rates, and high levels of peer socialization, which reinforce criminal activities.

JEL-codes: I28 J12 J15 K42 R23 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20200379 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20200379.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20200379.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Crime, Broken Families, and Punishment (2022)
Working Paper: Crime, Broken Families, and Punishment (2022)
Working Paper: Crime, Broken Families, and Punishment (2018) Downloads
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:aea:aejmic:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:723-60

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/mic.20200379

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics is currently edited by Johannes Hörner

More articles in American Economic Journal: Microeconomics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:723-60