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Self-defense Policy, Justified Homicides, and Race

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Spanbauer

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

Abstract

I use police records to explore whether changing self defense policies, known as Stand Your Ground, have differential effects across race. I find that implementing these policies leads to an additional 1.611 monthly killings of black Alleged Perpetrators of Crimes, 70.8 percent of whom are killed by black citizens, while only causing an additional 0.345 monthly killings of white Alleged Perpetrators, 97.7 percent of whom are killed by white citizens. Tests indicate that these racial disparities are significant in all cases, while falsification and robustness tests address concerns of endogenous policy creation. Results provide evidence that Stand Your Ground policies cause unequal outcomes between races.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Spanbauer, 2017. "Self-defense Policy, Justified Homicides, and Race," Working Papers 1708, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1708
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Crime; self-defense; Stand Your Ground; criminal policy; discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • Z18 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Public Policy

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