American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Learning by Offending: How Do Criminals Learn about Criminal Law?
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 16,
no. 3, August 2024
(pp. 27–60)
Abstract
This paper investigates how criminals learn about criminal laws. It uses a natural experiment in which sentences were drastically increased for a specific type of recidivism in France. In the short run, advertising the reform did not trigger any change in criminal behavior. However, people who had firsthand experience of the reform learned about it and later committed significantly fewer targeted crimes, but the same number of nontargeted crimes. Learning appears to be limited to individuals with direct experience of the law. While codefendants also learned, other criminal peers and defendants attending the same trial for another case did not.Citation
Philippe, Arnaud. 2024. "Learning by Offending: How Do Criminals Learn about Criminal Law?" American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 16 (3): 27–60. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20210378Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
- K14 Criminal Law
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
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