IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v17y1999i3p381-389.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is The Exclusionary Rule Worthwhile?

Author

Listed:
  • EVAN OSBORNE

Abstract

In the U.S. criminal courts must throw out improperly obtained evidence. A key justification for this practice is that it is that it deters law‐enforcement misconduct. This paper uses principal‐agent theory to suggest that, contrary to economic and other conventional wisdom, if the exclusionary rule is flawed it is because it deters inadequately rather than excessively. Principles of an optimal compensation scheme for law‐enforcement personnel are offered along with evidence suggesting that actual compensation does not reflect them. The rule may thus fail to sufficiently prevent misconduct even as it increases the costs from lost convictions. (JEL K14, K42, D82)

Suggested Citation

  • Evan Osborne, 1999. "Is The Exclusionary Rule Worthwhile?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 17(3), pages 381-389, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:17:y:1999:i:3:p:381-389
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1999.tb00690.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1999.tb00690.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1999.tb00690.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Brickley & Clifford Smith & Jerold Zimmerman, 2020. "The Economics of Organizational Architecture," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 32(1), pages 108-119, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eva Labro & Mark Lang & Jim Omartian, 2019. "Predictive Analytics and Organizational Architecture: Plant-Level Evidence from Census Data," Working Papers 19-02, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. Raymond O. S. Zaal, 2011. "Reinforcing Ethical Behavior through Organizational Architecture: A Hypothesized Relationship," Chapters, in: Killian J. McCarthy & Maya Fiolet & Wilfred Dolfsma (ed.), The Nature of the New Firm, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Shirley Daniel & Dongyoung Lee & Wolf Reitsperger, 2014. "Raising quality consciousness among Chinese manufacturing personnel: Testing the effectiveness of performance management tools," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 549-573, June.
    4. Raymond O. S. Zaal & Ronald J. M. Jeurissen & Edward A. G. Groenland, 2019. "Organizational Architecture, Ethical Culture, and Perceived Unethical Behavior Towards Customers: Evidence from Wholesale Banking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 825-848, September.
    5. Aggarwal, Raj, 2001. "Using economic profit to assess performance: a metric for modern firms," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 55-60.
    6. Ittner, Christopher D. & Larcker, David F., 2001. "Assessing empirical research in managerial accounting: a value-based management perspective," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 349-410, December.
    7. Kruis, Anne-Marie & Sneller, Lineke, 2013. "International Divider Walls," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 31-52.
    8. Anna V. Gozalova & Viktoriya S. Ryzhova & Lyudmila S. Skachkova, 2022. "Whether academic and teaching staff are universal," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 13(5), pages 85-101, November.
    9. J. Windsperger, 2009. "Allocation of decision rights in joint ventures," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(8), pages 491-501.
    10. O'Connor, Neale G. & Deng, Johnny & Luo, Yadong, 2006. "Political constraints, organization design and performance measurement in China's state-owned enterprises," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 157-177, February.
    11. Frank H.M. Verbeeten, 2008. "Performance management practices in public sector organizations," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 427-454, March.
    12. François Larmande & Jean-Pierre Ponssard, 2004. "EVA and the Controllability-congruence Trade-off: An Empirical Investigation," CESifo Working Paper Series 1257, CESifo.
    13. Josef Windsperger, 2013. "The governance of franchising networks," Chapters, in: Anna Grandori (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, chapter 27, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Josef Windsperger, 2002. "The Structure of Ownership Rights in Franchising: An Incomplete Contracting View," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 129-142, March.
    15. Windsperger, Josef, 2004. "Centralization of franchising networks: evidence from the Austrian franchise sector," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(12), pages 1361-1369, December.
    16. Brickley, James A. & Smith Jr., Clifford W. & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 2002. "Business ethics and organizational architecture," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 1821-1835, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:17:y:1999:i:3:p:381-389. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.