Seminar

Criminal Recidivism after Prison and Electronic Monitoring

Rafael Di Tella (Harvard Business School)

June 7, 2012, 11:00–12:30

Toulouse

Room MF 323

Development Economics Seminar

Abstract

We study criminal recidivism in Argentina by focusing on the re-arrest rates of two groups: individuals released from prison and individuals released from electronic monitoring. Detainees are randomly assigned to judges, and ideological differences across judges translate into large differences in the allocation of electronic monitoring to an otherwise similar population. Using these peculiarities of the Argentine setting we argue that there is a negative causal effect on criminal recidivism of treating individuals with electronic monitoring relative to prison of the order of 15 percentage points. Monitoring (joint with Ernesto Schargrodsky, UTDT)