An Experimental Test of Criminal Behavior Among Juveniles and Young Adults
نویسندگان
چکیده
We report results from economic experiments that provide a direct test of the hypothesis that criminal behavior responds rationally to changes in the possible rewards and in the probability and severity of punishment. The experiments involve decisions that are best described as petty larceny, and are done using high school and college students who can anonymously take real money from each other. We find that decisions about whether and how much to steal are, in general, rational and responsive to the variations in tradeoffs, and sometimes, though not always, to the overall availability of criminal opportunities. We would like to thank the students, teachers, and administrators of South Eugene High School and Churchill High School for their assistance, without which this research would not have been possible. This research was supported by a grant from the NSF. Participants at the 2004 NBER Summer Institute and the 2004 SEA Meetings provided valuable suggestions. An Experimental Test of Criminal Behavior among Juveniles and Young Adults
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