Civil Asset Forfeiture, Crime, and Police Incentives: Evidence from the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984

66 Pages Posted: 2 Oct 2017 Last revised: 26 Mar 2023

See all articles by Shawn Kantor

Shawn Kantor

Florida State University

Carl Kitchens

Florida State University - Department of Economics

Steven Pawlowski

Florida State University - Department of Economics, Students

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 2017

Abstract

The 1984 federal Comprehensive Crime Control Act (CCCA) included a provision that permitted local law enforcement agencies to share up to 80 percent of the proceeds derived from civil asset forfeitures obtained in joint operations with federal authorities. This procedure became known as “equitable sharing.” In this paper we investigate how this rule governing forfeited assets influenced crime and police incentives by taking advantage of pre-existing differences in state level civil asset forfeiture law and the timing of the CCCA. We find that after the CCCA was enacted crime fell about 17 percent in places where the federal law allowed police to retain more of their seized assets than state law previously allowed. Equitable sharing also led police agencies to reallocate their effort toward the policing of drug crimes. We estimate that drug arrests increased by about 37 percent in the years after the enactment of the CCCA, indicating that it was profitable for police agencies to reallocate their efforts. Such a reallocation of effort, however, brought an unintended cost in the form of increased roadway fatalities, seemingly from reduced enforcement of traffic laws.

Suggested Citation

Kantor, Shawn and Kitchens, Carl and Pawlowski, Steven, Civil Asset Forfeiture, Crime, and Police Incentives: Evidence from the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (September 2017). NBER Working Paper No. w23873, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3046386

Shawn Kantor (Contact Author)

Florida State University ( email )

Tallahasse, FL 32306
United States

Carl Kitchens

Florida State University - Department of Economics ( email )

Tallahassee, FL 30306-2180
United States

Steven Pawlowski

Florida State University - Department of Economics, Students ( email )

FL
United States

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