Salience of Law Enforcement: A Field Experiment

Arbeitspapier

We conduct a field experiment to examine whether the deterrent effect of law enforcement can be strengthened by making law enforcement activities more salient. Our focus is on illegal disposal of household garbage in residential areas. At a random subset of 56 locations in a city in the Netherlands, law enforcement officers supplemented their regular enforcement activities by the practice of putting bright warning labels on illegally disposed garbage bags saying that the item was “Found by law enforcement; fine minimally 90 euros”. We find evidence for a substantial reduction in illegal disposal of garbage as a result of the treatment at locations with garbage disposal containers, but not at locations with glass/paper disposal containers. Overall, the estimated treatment effect is negative, but imprecisely estimated.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper ; No. 17-007/VII

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Field Experiments ; Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
• Subject: law enforcement ; deterrence ; perception ; salience ; disorder

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Dur, Robert ; Vollaard, Ben
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Tinbergen Institute
• (where): Amsterdam and Rotterdam
• (when): 2013

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/149521
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET