Reducing crime through expungements

Authors

Murat C. Mungan, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2017

Journal Title

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

ISSN

0167-2681

DOI

10.1016/j.jebo.2017.03.021

Abstract

Expungement refers to the legal practice of having one's criminal record sealed. These legal devices lower the visibility of a person's criminal record, and thereby reduce the informal sanctions that may be imposed on him. This reduction is enjoyed by the ex-convict only if he does not become a repeat offender, because otherwise he re-obtains a criminal record. Thus, the value a person attaches to having his record expunged is inversely related to his criminal tendency. Therefore, by making expungements costly, the criminal justice system can sort out low criminal tendency individuals – who are unlikely to recidivate – from people who have high criminal tendencies. Moreover, the availability of expungements does not substantially affect a first time offender's incentive to commit crime, because one incurs a cost close to the reduction in informal sanctions that he enjoys by sealing his criminal record. On the other hand, expungements increase specific deterrence, because a person who has no visible record suffers informal sanctions if he is convicted a second time. Thus, perhaps counter-intuitively, allowing ex-convicts to seal their records at substantial costs reduces crime.

First Page

398

Last Page

409

Num Pages

12

Volume Number

137

Publisher

Elsevier

Recommended Citation

Murat C. Mungan, Reducing crime through expungements, 137 J. Econ. Behav. & Org. 398 (2017).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1860