Crime and Punishment

A young man named Elliot Rodger apparently killed six people Saturday in Isla Vista California. I say "apparently" because the story is new enough that it keeps changing. When I first heard it, he had shot six people dead, but now it appears that three of them were stabbed, according to a recent version of the story. Apparently most of his targets were women, although not all … [Read more...] about Elliot Rodger’s Motive Says Very Little About Anyone Except Elliot Rodger

In response to my post about some of economist Gary Becker's views on crime, "russ" leaves a comment with a couple of interesting points:I would think the failure of the war on drugs is the evidence AGAINST Becker’s idea that increased punishment reduces crime. Just because criminalizing drugs hasn't made them go away completely doesn't mean that criminalization has no … [Read more...] about Crime and Incentives

In the past few years, the states have been facing increasing difficulties obtaining the drugs they need to carry out their death penalties. This is in part because manufacturers have been refusing to make the drugs available for use in executions. So instead of using the traditional three-drug sequence, states have been experimenting with new drugs. However, since they don't … [Read more...] about Death Doesn’t Have to Knock: A Modest Proposal

Last summer, I expressed my doubts about scientific aims of the SORNA Challenge. By asking for proposals for "innovative" ways to measure the costs and benefits of the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, I felt that the National Institute of Justice was implicitly admitting that the widely accepted methodologies of sociology, criminology, and economics wouldn't … [Read more...] about SORNA Challenge Update

Apparently yesterday was sentencing hell day at Simple Justice.First up, Scott reminds us of the case of Antwuan Ball, Joseph Jones, and Desmond Thurston who were accused of engaging in a massive drug dealing conspiracy. The case went to a jury trial, and they beat all of the conspiracy charges. The jury only found them guilty of some relatively small-time drug … [Read more...] about Lessons in Allocution and Acquitted Conduct