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Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons™
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- Keyword
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- Booker v. United States (1)
- CAP (1)
- Certainty -- Social aspects (1)
- Certainty Aversion Presumption (1)
- Cesare Beccaria (1)
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- Criminal behavior -- Psychological aspects (1)
- Criminal psychology (1)
- Criminals (1)
- Gary Becker (1)
- Individuals' preferences (1)
- Mandatory sentencing (1)
- Punishment in crime deterrence (1)
- Punishment schemes (1)
- Risk aversion (1)
- Risk preferences (1)
- Risk seeking behavior (1)
- Risk-taking (Psychology) (1)
- Sanctions (Law) (1)
- Sentencing guidelines (1)
- Sixth Amendment (1)
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law Enforcement and Corrections
Identifying Criminals’ Risk Preferences, Murat C. Mungan, Jonathan Klick
Identifying Criminals’ Risk Preferences, Murat C. Mungan, Jonathan Klick
Indiana Law Journal
There is a 250-year-old presumption in the criminology and law enforcement literature that people are deterred more by increases in the certainty rather than increases in the severity of legal sanctions. We call this presumption the Certainty Aversion Presumption (CAP). Simple criminal decision-making models suggest that criminals must be risk seeking if they behave consistently with CAP. This implication leads to disturbing interpretations, such as criminals being categorically different from law-abiding people, who often display risk-averse behavior while making financial decisions. Moreover, policy discussions that incorrectly rely on criminals’ risk attitudes implied by CAP are ill informed, and may therefore …
Booker's Ironies, Ryan W. Scott