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American Law and Economics Review Advance Access first published online on April 2, 2008
This version published online on April 7, 2008
American Law and Economics Review, doi:10.1093/aler/ahn004
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American Law and Economics Review

Does Capital Punishment have a "Local" Deterrent Effect on Homicides?

Randi Hjalmarsson

University of Maryland

Send correspondence to: Randi Hjalmarsson, University of Maryland, School of Public Policy, 4131 Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD 20742; E-mail: rhjalmar{at}umd.edu.


  Abstract

The vast majority of death penalty studies use geographically or temporally aggregated data. Such aggregation can make it virtually impossible to identify small amounts of variation in homicides due to executions. Therefore, this study uses data that are disaggregated down to daily and city levels to test whether executions have a short-term deterrent effect. Little consistent evidence is found that Texas executions deter Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston homicides from 1999 to 2004. The analysis also does not consistently support the hypotheses that the deterrent effect should be more evident for local executions or executions that received local media coverage. (JEL K14, K42)

I would like to thank Shawn Bushway, John J. Donohue, Erik Hjalmarsson, Lennart Hjalmarsson, John Pepper, Peter Reuter, and two anonymous referees for sharing their opinions and suggestions.


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