Wrongful convictions and the punishment of attempts

Murat C. Mungan

International Review of Law and Economics, 2015, vol. 42, issue C, 79-87

Abstract: This article presents economic models of law enforcement where the punishment of attempts leads to an increased risk of wrongful convictions. Consideration of these risks weakens the case for punishing attempts. Specifically, attempts ought to be punished less frequently than suggested in previous literature, and even when the punishment of attempts is desirable, they typically ought to be punished less severely than accomplished crimes. Purely deterrence related rationales as well as rationales based on costs associated with wrongful convictions support this conclusion. The presence of wrongful conviction costs also implies that a degree of under-deterrence is optimal and that incomplete attempts ought to typically be punished less severely than complete attempts.

Keywords: Type-I errors; Attempts; Wrongful convictions; Judicial errors; Crime and deterrence; Optimal sanctions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K00 K14 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:42:y:2015:i:c:p:79-87

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2015.01.001

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