IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v240y2024ics0047272724001853.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Laffer’s day in court: The revenue effects of criminal justice fees and fines

Author

Listed:
  • Norris, Samuel
  • Rose, Evan K.

Abstract

Many jurisdictions levy sizable fines and fees (legal financial obligations, or LFOs) on criminal defendants. Proponents argue LFOs are a “tax on crime” that funds courts and provides deterrence; opponents argue they do neither. We examine the fiscal implications of lowering LFOs. Incentives to default generate a “Laffer” curve with revenue eventually decreasing in LFOs. Using detailed administrative data, however, we find few defendants demonstrably on the right-hand side of the curve. Those who are tend to be poor, Black, and charged with felonies. As a result, decreasing LFOs for the average defendant would come at substantial cost to governments.

Suggested Citation

  • Norris, Samuel & Rose, Evan K., 2024. "Laffer’s day in court: The revenue effects of criminal justice fees and fines," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:240:y:2024:i:c:s0047272724001853
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105249
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272724001853
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105249?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thai V Le & Matthew M Young, 2023. "Regressive revenue sourcing by local governments," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 811-828, April.
    2. Felipe M. Gonçalves & Steven Mello, 2023. "Police Discretion and Public Safety," NBER Working Papers 31678, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Devah Pager & Rebecca Goldstein & Helen Ho & Bruce Western, 2022. "Criminalizing Poverty: The Consequences of Court Fees in a Randomized Experiment," American Sociological Review, , vol. 87(3), pages 529-553, June.
    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. Johann D Gaebler & Phoebe Barghouty & Sarah Vicol & Cheryl Phillips & Sharad Goel, 2023. "Forgotten but not gone: A multi-state analysis of modern-day debt imprisonment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(9), pages 1-20, September.
    2. Eric Chyn & Brigham Frandsen & Emily Leslie, 2025. "Examiner and Judge Designs in Economics: A Practitioner's Guide," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(2), pages 401-439, June.
    3. John Eric Humphries & CŽcile Macaire & AurŽlie Ouss & Megan T. Stevenson & Winnie van Dijk, 2025. "Revisiting the Lasting Impacts of Incarceration," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2441, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    4. Mogstad, Magne & Torgovitsky, Alexander, 2024. "Instrumental variables with unobserved heterogeneity in treatment effects," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    5. Gaddis, S. Michael & Quadlin, Natasha & Larsen, Edvard Nergård & Crabtree, Charles & Holbein, John B., 2025. "Missing Results of Discrimination: A Systematically Comparative Meta-Analysis and Re-Examinations of Racial, Gender, and Intersectional Discrimination using Correspondence Audits," SocArXiv nd2y6_v1, Center for Open Science.
    6. Johannes W. Ligtenberg & Tiemen Woutersen, 2024. "Multidimensional clustering in judge designs," Papers 2406.09473, arXiv.org.

    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:eee:pubeco:v:240:y:2024:i:c:s0047272724001853. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578 .

    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.