IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/empleg/v5y2008i2p275-308.html

An Empirical Analysis of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas J. Miles

Abstract

Police agencies regularly publish lists of wanted fugitives. These lists may serve a variety of purposes, including (1) announcement of the police agency's enforcement priorities and (2) the facilitation of fugitive apprehension. When a police agency's enforcement priorities encompass fugitives whose apprehension risks vary in their sensitivity to publicity, a tradeoff may exist between these two purposes. This article conducts the first statistical analysis of fugitives who have appeared on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Ten Most Wanted List. It reports results consistent with this tradeoff. Estimates from hazard models show that changes in the characteristics of fugitives on the list were contemporaneous with declines in the speed of apprehension and in the likelihood that information or “tips” from the public caused a fugitive's apprehension. The results suggest that as the FBI acquired responsibility to enforce a wider range of criminal activity and as other avenues for publicizing fugitives developed, it increasingly used the list to communicate its priorities rather than to locate fugitives.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas J. Miles, 2008. "An Empirical Analysis of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(2), pages 275-308, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:empleg:v:5:y:2008:i:2:p:275-308
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00125.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00125.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2008.00125.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. Steven D. Levitt, 2004. "Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 163-190, Winter.
    2. Thomas, Jonathan M, 1996. "On the Interpretation of Covariate Estimates in Independent Competing-Risks Models," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 27-39, January.
    3. Schmidt, Peter & Witte, Ann Dryden, 1989. "Predicting criminal recidivism using 'split population' survival time models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 141-159, January.
    4. Han, Aaron & Hausman, Jerry A, 1990. "Flexible Parametric Estimation of Duration and Competing Risk Models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(1), pages 1-28, January-M.
    5. Rosen, Sherwin, 2007. "Studies in Labor Markets," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226726304.
    6. Miles, Thomas J, 2005. "Estimating the Effect of America's Most Wanted: A Duration Analysis of Wanted Fugitives," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(1), pages 281-306, April.
    7. James J. Heckman, 1981. "Heterogeneity and State Dependence," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in Labor Markets, pages 91-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Henry S. Farber, 1992. "Evaluating Competing Theories of Worker Mobility," Working Papers 1992-1, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    2. Raphael Corbi & Fabio Miessi Sanches, 2022. "Church Competition, Religious Subsidies and the Rise of Evangelicalism: a Dynamic Structural Analysis," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2022_09, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    3. repec:idb:brikps:259 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. David Blau, 2003. "Child Care Subsidy Programs," NBER Chapters, in: Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, pages 443-516, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Fendel Tanja, 2016. "Migration and Regional Wage Disparities in Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 236(1), pages 3-35, February.
    6. Maki Dahchour & Georges Dionne, 2002. "Pricing of Automobile Insurance Under Asymmetric Information: a Study on Panel Data," Working Papers 01-6, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    7. Giarda, Elena, 2013. "Persistency of financial distress amongst Italian households: Evidence from dynamic models for binary panel data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3425-3434.
    8. Long Q. Trinh, 2016. "Dynamics of Innovation and Internationalization among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Viet Nam," ADBI Working Papers 580, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    9. Arellano, Manuel & Carrasco, Raquel, 2003. "Binary choice panel data models with predetermined variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 125-157, July.
    10. Jay Pil Choi & Seung-Hyun Hong & Seonghoon Jeon, 2013. "Local Identity and Persistent Leadership in Market Share Dynamics: Evidence from Deregulation in the Korean Soju Industry," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 29, pages 267-304.
    11. Brigitte Waldorf, 2003. "Spatial Patterns and Processes in a Longitudinal Framework," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 26(3), pages 269-288, July.
    12. Dang, Rey & Houanti, L'Hocine & Sahut, Jean-Michel & Simioni, Michel, 2021. "Do women on corporate boards influence corporate social performance? A control function approach," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    13. Cook, Philip J. & Moore, Michael J., 2000. "Alcohol," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 30, pages 1629-1673, Elsevier.
    14. Param Vir Singh & Nachiketa Sahoo & Tridas Mukhopadhyay, 2014. "How to Attract and Retain Readers in Enterprise Blogging?," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 35-52, March.
    15. Demoussis, Michael & Giannakopoulos, Nicholas, 2006. "The dynamics of home computer ownership in Greece," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 73-86, March.
    16. Juan M. Villa & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2019. "Poverty dynamics and graduation from conditional cash transfers: a transition model for Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera program," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(2), pages 219-251, June.
    17. Zorlu, Aslan & Mulder, Clara H. & van Gaalen, Ruben, 2014. "Ethnic disparities in the transition to home ownership," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 151-163.
    18. Jürgen Maurer & Katherine M. Harris, 2016. "Learning to Trust Flu Shots: Quasi‐Experimental Evidence from the 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(9), pages 1148-1162, September.
    19. Martijn G. de Jong & Donald R. Lehmann & Oded Netzer, 2012. "State-Dependence Effects in Surveys," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(5), pages 838-854, September.
    20. Della Sara & Lucchini Mario, 2015. "Modelling social inequalities in health in contemporary Switzerland," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 39-50, January.
    21. Randall K.Q Akee & David A Jaeger & Konstantinos Tatsiramos, 2013. "The Persistence of Self-Employment Across Borders: New Evidence on Legal Immigrants to the United States," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(1), pages 126-137.

    More about this item

    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:wly:empleg:v:5:y:2008:i:2:p:275-308. 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://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1740-1461 .

    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.