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Tough on young offenders: harmful or helpful?

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  • Lotti, Giulia

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)

Abstract

How harshly should society punish young lawbreakers in order to prevent or reduce their criminal activity in the future? Through a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we shed light on the question by exploiting two quasi-natural experiments stemming to compate outcomes from relatively harsh and rehabilitative criminal incarceration practices involving young offenders in the 1980's in England and Wales. According to our local linear regression estimates, young offenders exposed to the harsher youth facilities are 20.7 percent more likley to recidivate in the nine years subsequent to their custody, and they commit on average 2.84 offences more than offenders who experienced prison. Moreover, they are more likely to commit violent offences, thefts, burglaries and robberies. On the contrary, offenders who were sent to the more rehabilitative youth facilities are less likely to reoffend in the future compared to offenders sent to prison. We conclude that it is effective to keep young offenders from their older peers in prison, but only when they are held in institutions that are not solely focussed on punishment.

Suggested Citation

  • Lotti, Giulia, 2016. "Tough on young offenders: harmful or helpful?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1126, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:1126
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    Cited by:

    1. Steeve Marchand & Guy Lacroix & William Arbour, 2023. "Prison rehabilitation programs and recidivism: evidence from variations in availability," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2023n07, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    2. William Arbour & Guy Lacroix & Steeve Marchand, 2021. "Prison Rehabilitation Programs: Efficiency and Targeting," Working Papers tecipa-684, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    young offenders; recidivism; custodial sentence; crime; deterrence effects.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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