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Crime, Punishment, and Politics: An Analysis of Political Cycles in Criminal SentencingCarlos BerdejoLoyola Law School Los Angeles Noam YuchtmanUniversity of California, Berkeley - Haas School of Business December 28, 2012 Review of Economics and Statistics, Forthcoming Loyola-LA Legal Studies Paper No. 2012-50 Abstract: Whether judges respond to political pressure is an important question occupying social scientists. We present evidence that Washington State judges respond to such pressure by sentencing serious crimes more severely. Sentences are around 10% longer at the end of a judge's political cycle than the beginning; deviations above the sentencing guidelines increase by 50% across the electoral cycle. We conduct robustness and falsi fication exercises and distinguish between judges' election cycles and other officials' by exploring non-linear eff ects of electoral proximity. Our fi ndings inform debates over judicial elections, and highlight the interaction between judicial discretion and the influence of judicial elections.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 65 JEL Classification: K40, K42, D72 Accepted Paper SeriesDate posted: December 30, 2012Suggested Citation |
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