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The Fugitive: Evidence on Public versus Private Law Enforcement from Bail Jumping

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  • Helland, Eric
  • Tabarrok, Alexander

Abstract

On the day of their trial, a substantial number of felony defendants fail to appear. Public police have the primary responsibility for pursuing and rearresting defendants who were released on their own recognizance or on cash or government bail. Defendants who made bail by borrowing from a bond dealer, however, must worry about an entirely different pursuer. When a defendant who has borrowed money skips trial, the bond dealer forfeits the bond unless the fugitive is soon returned. As a result, bond dealers have an incentive to monitor their charges and ensure that they do not skip. When a defendant does skip, bond dealers hire bounty hunters to return the defendants to custody. We compare the effectiveness of these two different systems by examining failure-to-appear rates, fugitive rates, and capture rates of felony defendants who fall under the various systems. We apply propensity score and matching techniques.

Suggested Citation

  • Helland, Eric & Tabarrok, Alexander, 2004. "The Fugitive: Evidence on Public versus Private Law Enforcement from Bail Jumping," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(1), pages 93-122, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:y:2004:v:47:i:1:p:93-122
    DOI: 10.1086/378694
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Albright, Alex, 2022. "No Money Bail, No Problems? Trade-offs in a Pretrial Automatic Release Program," SocArXiv 42pbz, Center for Open Science.
    3. Rosario Crinó & Giovanni Immordino & Salvatore Piccolo, 2021. "Criminal mobility, fugitives, and extradition rules," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(1), pages 69-104, February.
    4. Chalfin, Aaron & Danagoulian, Shooshan & Deza, Monica, 2019. "More sneezing, less crime? Health shocks and the market for offenses," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    5. Rosario Crinò & Giovanni Immordino & Salvatore Piccolo, 2018. "Fighting Mobile Crime," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def071, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    6. Erwin Blackstone & Andrew Buck & Simon Hakim, 2007. "The economics of emergency response," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 40(4), pages 313-334, December.
    7. Emily Owens & CarlyWill Sloan, 2023. "Can text messages reduce incarceration in rural and vulnerable populations?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 992-1009, September.
    8. Eric Helland & Alexander Tabarrok, 2007. "Does Three Strikes Deter?: A Nonparametric Estimation," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(2).
    9. Florian Baumann & Sophie Bienenstock & Tim Friehe & Maiva Ropaul, 2023. "Fines as enforcers’ rewards or as a transfer to society at large? Evidence on deterrence and enforcement implications," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 229-255, September.
    10. Stephen J Clipper & Robert G Morris & Amanda Russell-Kaplan, 2017. "The link between bond forfeiture and pretrial release mechanism: The case of Dallas County, Texas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-20, August.
    11. Emanuel, Natalia & Ho, Helen, 2020. "Behavioral Biases and Legal Compliance: A Field Experiment," SocArXiv ztnmf, Center for Open Science.
    12. Anna Harvey, 2020. "Applying regression discontinuity designs to American political development," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 377-399, December.
    13. Bierie, David M., 2014. "Fugitives in the United States," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 327-337.

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