IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/1884.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Crime and Punishment Again: The Economic Approach with a Psychological Twist

Author

Listed:
  • William T. Dickens

Abstract

Akerlof and Dickens (1982) suggested that in a model of criminal behavior which considered the effects of cognitive dissonance, increasing the severity of punishment could increase the crime rate. This paper demonstrates that that conjecture was correct. With cognitive dissonance, people may have to rationalize not committing crimes under normal circumstances if punishment is not severe. The rationalization may lead them to underestimate the expected utility of committing crimes when opportunities present themselves. If punishment is severe, then rationalization may not be necessary and people may be more likely to commit crimes when opportunities arise.

Suggested Citation

  • William T. Dickens, 1986. "Crime and Punishment Again: The Economic Approach with a Psychological Twist," NBER Working Papers 1884, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1884
    Note: LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w1884.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Akerlof, George A & Dickens, William T, 1982. "The Economic Consequences of Cognitive Dissonance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 307-319, June.
    2. Myers, Samuel L, Jr, 1980. "The Rehabilitation Effect of Punishment," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(3), pages 353-366, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karen Pittel & Dirk Rübbelke, 2011. "Characteristics of Terrorism," Chapters, in: Derek L. Braddon & Keith Hartley (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Conflict, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Östling Robert, 2009. "Economic Influences on Moral Values," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-26, January.
    3. Saori Chiba & Kaiwen Leong, 2016. "Behavioral Economics of Crime Rates and Punishment Levels," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 172(4), pages 727-754, December.
    4. Feess, Eberhard & Sarel, Roee, 2022. "Optimal fine reductions for self-reporting: The impact of loss aversion," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Nir, A., 2004. "A Behavioral Model of Conumption Patterns : The Effects of Cognitive Dissonance and Conformity," Discussion Paper 2004-48, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Matthew Rabin, 1998. "Psychology and Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(1), pages 11-46, March.
    7. Ricardo J. Rodriguez, 1990. "Penalty Schedules and the Optimal Speed Limit," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 59-64, Jan-Mar.
    8. Gavrilets, Sergey & Tverskoi, Denis & Sánchez, Angel, 2023. "Modeling social norms: an integration of the norm-utility approach with beliefs dynamics," SocArXiv n934a, Center for Open Science.
    9. Lamprinakis, Lampros & Fulton, Murray E., 2006. "Cognitive Dissonance and Customer Allegiance in a Mixed Oligopoly," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21228, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Nir, A., 2004. "Cognitive Procedures and Hyperbolic Discounting," Other publications TiSEM e26d6ae0-fc76-4fb2-b845-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Larry Epstein & Igor Kopylov, 2006. "Cognitive Dissonance and Choice," RCER Working Papers 525, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
    12. Tatsuhito Kono & Masaya Okuno & Kazuho Yamaura, 2022. "Regional differences in cognitive dissonance in evacuation behavior at the time of the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 111(1), pages 139-162, March.
    13. James D. Montgomery, 1994. "Revisting Tally's Corner," Rationality and Society, , vol. 6(4), pages 462-488, October.
    14. Balestrino, Alessandro & Ciardi, Cinzia, 2008. "Social norms, cognitive dissonance and the timing of marriage," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2399-2410, December.
    15. Nir, A., 2004. "A Behavioral Model of Conumption Patterns : The Effects of Cognitive Dissonance and Conformity," Other publications TiSEM 11a84f9e-a1cc-4986-b927-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    16. Roee Sarel, 2022. "Crime and punishment in times of pandemics," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 155-186, October.
    17. Nir, A., 2004. "Cognitive Procedures and Hyperbolic Discounting," Discussion Paper 2004-47, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    18. Matthew G. Nagler, 2023. "Thoughts matter: a theory of motivated preference," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 211-247, February.
    19. Kim, Jeong-Yoo, 2006. "Hyperbolic discounting and the repeated self-control problem," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 344-359, June.
    20. Johannes Idsø & Torbjørn Årethun, 2018. "Crime Statistics: Modeling Theft in Favour of Victims’ Choices," Economies, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-14, April.
    21. Marcelo Caffera & Carlos Chávez & Analia Ardente, 2013. "Does the structure of the fine matter?," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1305, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..

    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. Bobba, Matteo & Frisancho, Veronica, 2022. "Self-perceptions about academic achievement: Evidence from Mexico City," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 58-73.
    2. Schnellenbach, Jan, 2012. "Nudges and norms: On the political economy of soft paternalism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 266-277.
    3. Ghosal, Sayantan & Dalton, Patricio, 2013. "Characterizing Behavioral Decisions with Choice Data," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 107, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    4. Qiyan ONG & Yohanes Eko RIYANTO & Walter E. THESEIRA & Steven M. SHEFFRIN, 2013. "The Self-Image Signaling Roles of Voice in Decision-Making," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 1303, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    5. Jingze Jiang, 2016. "Peer Pressure in Voluntary Environmental Programs: a Case of the Bag Rewards Program," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 155-190, June.
    6. Becker, Gary S. & Rubinstein, Yona, 2011. "Fear and the response to terrorism: an economic analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121740, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Lambsdorff, Johann Graf & Grubiak, Kevin & Werner, Katharina, 2023. "Intrinsic Motivation vs. Corruption? Experimental Evidence on the Performance of Officials," MPRA Paper 118153, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Schnellenbach, Jan & Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Behavioral political economy: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 395-417.
    10. Carlos Alós-Ferrer & Georg D. Granic, 2023. "Does choice change preferences? An incentivized test of the mere choice effect," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 26(3), pages 499-521, July.
    11. Alfonso Arellano & Noelia Camara & David Tuesta, 2014. "El efecto de la autoconfianza en el conocimiento financiero," Working Papers 1427, BBVA Bank, Economic Research Department.
    12. Koichi Hamada & Asahi Noguchi, 2005. "The Role of Preconceived Ideas in Macroeconomic Policy: Japan's Experiences in the Two Deflationary Periods," Working Papers 908, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    13. Chuanlu Ge & Yuhan Bi & Jia Xu, 2024. "Local donation culture and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from China," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 734-763, July.
    14. Karen Pittel & Dirk Rubbelke, 2006. "What Directs a Terrorist?," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 311-328.
    15. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2006. "Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 699-746.
    16. Nyborg, Karine, 2011. "I don't want to hear about it: Rational ignorance among duty-oriented consumers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 263-274, August.
    17. Augenblick, Ned & Cunha, Jesse M. & Dal Bó, Ernesto & Rao, Justin M., 2016. "The economics of faith: using an apocalyptic prophecy to elicit religious beliefs in the field," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 38-49.
    18. Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap & Abhijit Ramalingam & Brock K. Stoddard, 2018. "Within-group inequality in inter-group competition," Working Papers 18-17, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    19. Gernot Wagner & Richard Zeckhauser, 2012. "Climate policy: hard problem, soft thinking," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 507-521, February.
    20. de la Rosa, Leonidas Enrique, 2011. "Overconfidence and moral hazard," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 429-451.

    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:nbr:nberwo:1884. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.