Love, hate and murder: Commitment devices in violent relationships

Anna Aizer and Pedro Dal B

Journal of Public Economics, 2009, vol. 93, issue 3-4, 412-428

Abstract: Many violent relationships are characterized by a high degree of cyclicality: women who are the victims of domestic violence often leave and return multiple times. To explain this we develop a model of time inconsistent preferences in the context of domestic violence. This time inconsistency generates a demand for commitment. We present supporting evidence that women in violent relationships display time inconsistent preferences by examining their demand for commitment devices. We find that no-drop policies - which compel the prosecutor to continue with prosecution even if the victim expresses a desire to drop the charges - result in an increase in reporting. No-drop policies also result in a decrease in the number of men murdered by intimates suggesting that some women in violent relationships move away from an extreme type of commitment device when a less costly one is offered.

Keywords: Domestic; violence; Time; inconsistency; Commitment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (58)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047-2727(08)00137-0
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Love, Hate and Murder: Commitment Devices in Violent Relationships (2007)
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:eee:pubeco:v:93:y:2009:i:3-4:p:412-428

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Public Economics is currently edited by R. Boadway and J. Poterba

More articles in Journal of Public Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().