Arbeitspapier
Sentence reductions and recidivism: lessons from the Bastille Day quasi experiment
This paper exploits the collective pardon granted to individuals incarcerated in French prisons on the 14th of July, 1996 (Bastille Day) to identify the effect of collective sentence reductions on recidivism. The collective pardon generated a very significant discontinuity in the relationship between the number of weeks of sentence reduction granted to inmates and their prospective date of release. We show that the same discontinuity exists in the relationship between recidivism probability five years after the release and prospective date of release. Overall, the Bastille Day quasi experiment suggests that collective sentence reductions increase recidivism and do not represent a cost-effective way to reduce incarceration rates or prisons' overcrowding.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 3990
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
- Subject
-
Crime
prison
deterrence effect
recidivism
Straffreiheit
Kriminalität
Kriminalpolitik
Frankreich
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Maurin, Eric
Ouss, Aurelie
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- (where)
-
Bonn
- (when)
-
2009
- Handle
- URN
-
urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090304456
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Maurin, Eric
- Ouss, Aurelie
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2009