, number 3 , March 2016 :e 20152711 From Oakland and Ferguson, to Cleveland and Baltimore, cities across the country mourn young African-Americans whose tragic deaths, following contentious encounters with police, illustrate the violent exchange that can erupt between law enforcement and people of color. Because police are vital pillars of community safety, these events raise important question...

The timing and the frequency of punishment are critical elements in law enforcement. Previous studies suggest the superiority of immediate punishment schemes over delayed punishment, as well as the importance of frequent punishment. Yet law enforcement schemes which utilize both frequent and immediate punishment may be cost prohibitive in real settings. In this work, we propose the “bad lottery...

Are regulations on the payday loan effective? Do people switch to other forms of expensive credit such as pawnshop loans because of such regulations? In this study, we aim to find the answers to these two questions through exploring state-level variations in regulations on payday loans and other alternative financial services. Using FDIC’s panel survey data and Google Trends data, we find that ...

Given individual propensities to cheat (stealing, overcharging, etc.), the optimality conditions for the amount of resources devoted to law enforcement and for the severity o f penalties on convicted cheats are derived. In some interesting cases, the optimal penalty equals the market price divided by the probability of conviction and it is optimal to spend very little on enforcement and impose ...

This paper reviews the literature pertaining to the phenomenon of "suicide by cop"--any incident in which a suicidal individual attempts to get law enforcement to kill him. This article defines the term "suicide by cop," discusses the various motivations of individuals who engage in this type of behavior, presents the risk factors and indicators for suicide and violence, and describes specific ...