Working Paper: NBER ID: w31939
Authors: Andrew Jordan; Ezra Karger; Derek Neal
Abstract: We examine 70,581 felony court cases filed in Chicago, IL, from 1990–2007. We exploit case randomization to assess the impact of judge assignment and sentencing decisions on the arrival of new charges. We find that, in marginal cases, incarceration creates large and lasting reductions in recidivism among first offenders. Yet, among marginal repeat offenders, incarceration creates only short-run incapacitation effects and no lasting reductions in the incidence of new felony charges. These treatment-impact differences inform ongoing legal debates concerning the merits of sentencing rules that recommend leniency for first offenders while encouraging or mandating incarceration sentences for many repeat offenders. We show that methods that fail to estimate separate outcome equations for first versus repeat offenders or fail to model judge-specific sentencing tendencies separately for cases involving first versus repeat offenders produce misleading results for first offenders.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: K0
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| First Offenders (K40) | Recidivism (First Offenders) (K14) |
| Repeat Offenders (K42) | Recidivism (Repeat Offenders) (K14) |
| Incarceration (K14) | Recidivism (First Offenders) (K14) |
| Incarceration (K14) | Recidivism (Repeat Offenders) (K14) |
| Sentencing Decisions (K40) | Future Charges (Defendants) (K49) |