Using a sample of Australians who display high rates of early school-leaving, we compare the trajectories of respondents who left school at each incremental age between 14 and 17 with respondents who left at 18 years old or more, in terms of homelessness, incarceration, substance use and mental...

Using a sample of disadvantaged Australians, we compare trajectories of those who left school before 18 with those who left later, in terms of homelessness, incarceration, substance use and mental health issues. We estimate a staggered difference-in-difference to account for heterogenous...

Background: The objective was to analyze the budgets invested in prisons by the member states of the Council of Europe (CoE) and the relationships between the global cost, the cost incurred per single inmate, the number of inmates per 100,000 inhabitants (PPR), the gross domestic product (GDP)...

Peer interactions play a key role in the criminal sector due to its secrecy and lack of formal institutions. A significant part of criminal peer exposure happens in prison, directly influenced by policymakers. This paper provides a broader understanding of how peer effects shape criminal...

Inmates' informal code often ascribes low status to persons perceived as passive homosexuals. We use longitudinal data to investigate whether prison experience contributes to anti-gay beliefs. We find that prison experience prompts a higher level of anti-gay sentiments among males and their...

Inmates' informal code regulates their behavior and attitudes. We investigate whether prisons contribute to the spread of these norms to the general population using an exogenous shock of the Soviet amnesty of 1953, which released 1.2 million prisoners. We document the spread of prison norms in...

When decision-makers overemphasize salient features under limited attention, biased decisions can result in settings in which decisions should be unbiased. We exploit a sudden shock in the salience of individuals of Moroccan descent in the Netherlands to test the vulnerability of decisions of...

Work in prisons has taken on various meanings over time. In European contexts, it serves as a valuable tool for enhancing inmates' quality of life. Specifically, agricultural work is recognised for its benefits, such as physical and psychological rehabilitation, vocational training, job...

When decision-makers overemphasize salient features under limited attention, biased decisions can result in settings in which decisions should be unbiased. We exploit a sudden shock in the salience of individuals of Moroccan descent in the Netherlands to test the vulnerability of decisions of...

Electronic monitoring (EM) has emerged as a popular tool for curbing the growth of large prison populations. Evidence on the causal effects of EM on criminal recidivism is, however, limited and it is unclear how this alternative to incarceration affects the labor supply of offenders and the...

We estimate the causal effects of parental incarceration on children's short- and long-run outcomes using administrative data from Sweden. Our empirical strategy exploits exogenous variation in parental incarceration from the random assignment of criminal defendants to judges with different...

Increasing evidence suggests that incarceration can improve the social reintegration of inmates in some circumstances. Yet, the mechanisms through which incarceration may favor rehabilitation remain largely unknown. This paper exploits variations in program availability in Quebec (Canada) to...

Prisons serve the public by keeping in safe custody those committed by the courts and treating them with humanity and helping them lead a useful life in society as law abiding citizens after their release from the prison. Prison in India is an age old concept.In the early periods, unused old...

Prisons serve the public by keeping in safe custody those committed by the courts and treating them with humanity and helping them lead a useful life in society as law abiding citizens after their release from the prison. Prison in India is an age old concept.In the early periods, unused old...

Prison gangs are often thought to create a “culture of violence” in U.S. prisons and jails. Yet mounting research and evidence suggests that prison gangs, in pursuit of profits from illicit market activity, also act as a check on the violent behavior of the broader prison population. This...

We exploit a data set of criminal trials in 19th century London to evaluate the impact of an accused's right to counsel on convictions. While lower-level crimes had an established history of professional representation prior to 1836, individuals accused of committing a felony did not, despite...

Most of the 600,000 adults returning to the community from state and federal prisons annually in the U.S. carry substantial debt, have low income and low education, and limited formal employment prior to entering prison. Upon reentry, they face financial hardship, high rates of morbidity and...

The support of loved ones is beneficial at any time and in any activity that an individual wants to pursue. In difficult moments in life, the importance of the support given by the loved ones increases. This is also the case at the time of separation from society by being sentenced to a prison...

We use linked employer-employee data to investigate a large sample of past and future prisoners in Hungary, 2003-2011. We first compare their jobs, focusing on attributes that can reduce the penalty the employer must pay for a mistaken hiring decision. Second, we study if employers insure...

This study examines the influence of perceived organizational support on middle manager perceptions by demonstrating that the organization values their well-being, causing them to contribute to organizational growth. This study also tries to explain how psychological capital mediates the impact...

Penology in the Jim Crow South centered on the chain gang. Gangs ostensibly served three purposes: their severity served as a deterrent; their putting convicts to work on roads and other public improvements reduced the taxpayers’ costs of infrastructure; and their discriminatory implementation...

We study the effects of laws streamlining access to post-conviction forensic DNA technology ("DNA laws"). We present a conceptual framework in which DNA laws' effects differ by race due to unequal access to non-DNA exoneration technologies. Consistent with the framework's predictions, we find...

This paper studies the effect of a restorative justice intervention targeted at youth ages 13 to 17 facing felony charges of medium severity (e.g., burglary, assault). Eligible youths were randomly assigned to participate in the Make-it-Right (MIR) restorative justice program or a control group...

In the economic literature on law enforcement, the distinction between the probability of arrest and the probability of conviction is not explicit. However, detection does not necessarily imply punishment. This paper focuses on proving that punishment cannot be applied without preceding...

Calls for criminal justice reform have become commonplace, as issues ranging from ethnic and racial bias in policing to prison overcrowding have taken center stage in many policy discussions. The demand for change in the criminal justice system largely falls on the shoulders of leadership within...

Does prison cause mental health problems among inmates and their family members? Correlational studies tend to find much higher prevalence of mental health problems among inmates than in the general population, but remain silent on the issue of causality. We combine detailed Norwegian data on...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates the interstate rates for inmate calling services, and over the years, has made some progress in lowering rates from egregiously high historic levels. However, correctional facilities, in large part, rely on the same provider for both voice...

A large literature details the causes and consequences of incarceration. This study evaluates the role of economic freedom in this context using US Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) data from 1977 to 2017. To do so, we implement economic freedom scores at the MSA level derived from Stansel...