全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): Misdemeanor Prosecution

G2TT

来源类型	Working Paper
规范类型	报告
DOI	10.3386/w28600
来源ID	Working Paper 28600
	Misdemeanor Prosecution
	Amanda Y. Agan; Jennifer L. Doleac; Anna Harvey
发表日期	2021-03-29
出版年	2021
语种	英语
摘要	Communities across the United States are reconsidering the public safety benefits of prosecuting nonviolent misdemeanor offenses, yet there is little empirical evidence to inform policy in this area. In this paper we report the first estimates of the causal effects of misdemeanor prosecution on defendants' subsequent criminal justice involvement. We leverage the as-if random assignment of nonviolent misdemeanor cases to Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) who decide whether a case should be prosecuted in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in Massachusetts. These ADAs vary in the average leniency of their prosecution decisions. We find that, for the marginal defendant, nonprosecution of a nonviolent misdemeanor offense leads to a 53% reduction in the likelihood of a new criminal complaint, and to a 60% reduction in the number of new criminal complaints, over the next two years. These local average treatment effects are largest for defendants without prior criminal records, suggesting that averting criminal record acquisition is an important mechanism driving our findings. We also present evidence that a recent policy change in Suffolk County imposing a presumption of nonprosecution for nonviolent misdemeanor offenses had similar beneficial effects, decreasing the likelihood of subsequent criminal justice involvement.
主题	Other ; Law and Economics
URL	https://www.nber.org/papers/w28600
来源智库	National Bureau of Economic Research (United States)
引用统计
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/586273
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Amanda Y. Agan,Jennifer L. Doleac,Anna Harvey. Misdemeanor Prosecution. 2021.

条目包含的文件
文件名称/大小	资源类型	版本类型	开放类型	使用许可
w28600.pdf（818KB）	智库出版物		限制开放	CC BY-NC-SA	浏览