Juvenile Crime and Anticipated Punishment

Ashna Arora

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 522-50

Abstract: Can sanctions deter juvenile crime? Research indicates that they may not, as offending barely decreases when individuals cross the age of criminal majority and begin to face harsher sanctions. Several models of criminal behavior predict, however, that these small reactions close to the threshold may mask larger behavioral responses among individuals below the age threshold. Policy variation between 2007–2015 in the United States is used to show evidence consistent with these predictions—juvenile crime increases when the age of majority is increased. This increase is driven by younger age groups and is considerably larger than discontinuity estimates at the threshold.

JEL-codes: D91 J13 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20210530 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E176501V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20210530.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20210530.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

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:aea:aejpol:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:522-50

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

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210530

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

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