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Lethal Police Response as a Crime Deterrent:

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  • Dale O. Cloninger

Abstract

. Since Gary Becker's article on the economics of crime and punishment, economists have explored extensively the possible deterrence effect of standard enforcement variables, not only for their public policy implications but to test the hypothesis that illegitimate behavior is sensitive to measures of risk and reward (loss) as well as social, psychological and cultural forces. Research has been needed on the probability of death to the offender caused by official police action—“lethal response.” To measure the criminal reaction to intercity variations in the rate of civilian killings of police in the line of duty, a cross‐sectional study of 57 cities was undertaken. Variations in non‐homicide violent crime rate were found to be inversely related to variations in the intercity lethal response rate. this suggests the presence of a deterrence effect, a one Sixth of one percent decrease in the rate of non‐homicide violent crime being associated with a one percent increase in the lethal response rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Dale O. Cloninger, 1991. "Lethal Police Response as a Crime Deterrent:," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 59-69, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:50:y:1991:i:1:p:59-69
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1991.tb02487.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Landes, William M, 1978. "An Economic Study of U.S. Aircraft Hijacking, 1961-1976," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 1-31, April.
    2. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1973. "Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 521-565, May-June.
    3. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1977. "Capital Punishment and Deterrence: Some Further Thoughts and Additional Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(4), pages 741-788, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lawrence Southwick, 1998. "An economic analysis of murder and accident risks for police in the United States," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 593-605.
    2. Dale Cloninger & Roberto Marchesini, 2001. "Execution and deterrence: a quasi-controlled group experiment," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 569-576.
    3. Brumm, Harold J. & Cloninger, Dale O., 1996. "Perceived risk of punishment and the commission of homicides: A covariance structure analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-11, October.
    4. Wilson, Dennis P., 2005. "Additional law enforcement as a deterrent to criminal behavior: empirical evidence from the National Hockey League," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 319-330, May.

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