The location of women's prisons and the deterrence effect of “harder” time
The location of women's prisons and the deterrence effect of “harder” time
Author: Kelly Bedard
Author: Eric Helland
Abstract: Most studies of the deterrence effect of incarceration treat a year in prison as having the same deterrence effect regardless of the conditions of incarceration. In contrast, we are interested in the deterrence effect of punitiveness that is unrelated to sentence length. We focus on the punitiveness of reduced visitation associated with incarceration in institutions far from one's city of residence. Our estimation strategy takes advantage of the natural experiment created by recent expansions in the female penal system. The physical expansion of the penal system decreased the distance to prisons for some cities while increasing it for others. Our results suggest that incarceration location has a sizable deterrence effect. Increasing the average distance to a woman's prison by 40 miles reduces the female violent crime rate by approximately 6%.
Date: June 1, 2004
URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0144818804000377
Accessed: 2/3/2022, 3:07:01 PM
Volume: 24
Pages: 147-167
Publication: International Review of Law and Economics
Issue: 2
Reading Notes:
Objective: To estimate the deterrence effect of variation in punitiveness of incarceration unrelated to sentence length using distance of prison from home town, which will reduce visitation
Importance: Most studies treat a year of imprisonment as having the same deterrence effect regardless of punitiveness
Background: Recent expansion of female penal system decreased distance to prison in some cities and increased it in others.
Retribution can be thought of as a consumption good for victims & others
Data: Uniform Crime Reports 1980-1995
UCR supplementary homicide report
Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities 1980, 1985, 1992, 1995
1997 Survey of Prison Inmates
Key variables:
Female crime rate: female_crime(ijt)=
(female_arrests(ijt)/
[male_arrests(ijt)+female_arrests(ijt)])*total_crime(ijt)
Average distance to prison, weighted by relative prison population
Methodology:
log(female_crime)=B1Distance+B2Distance^2+Demographic controls+census division FEs+ city FEs
Also use Poisson model with murder rate as dependent variable
Results: Increasing the average distance to a women's prison by 40 miles reduces female violent crime by 6%, property crime by 2.7%, and murders by (marginally precise) 13.4%
Key Table/Figure:
