Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2012

Journal Title

Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics

ISSN

0932-4569

DOI

10.1628/093245612800933988

Abstract

The conventional result of the theory of the public enforcement of law is that wrongful convictions of innocents are detrimental to deterrence. This proposition has been challenged recently. In some cases, wrongful convictions do not jeopardize deterrence, because they influence equally the innocent and the guilty. Therefore deterrence does not change. We show that, in general, wrongful convictions do lower deterrence. We prove that wrongful convictions do not jeopardize deterrence only in very limited circumstances or under unlikely assumptions.

First Page

224

Last Page

231

Num Pages

8

Volume Number

168

Issue Number

2

Publisher

Mohr Siebeck

File Type

PDF

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