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Police officer on the frontline or a soldier? The effect of police militarization on crime
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Bove, Vincenzo and Gavrilova, Evelina (2017) Police officer on the frontline or a soldier? The effect of police militarization on crime. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 9 (3). pp. 1-18. doi:10.1257/pol.20150478
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/pol.20150478
Abstract
Sparked by high-profile confrontations between police and citizens in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere, many commentators have criticized the excessive militarization of law enforcement. We investigate whether surplus military-grade equipment acquired by local police departments from the Pentagon has an effect on crime rates. We use temporal variations in US military expenditure and between-counties variation in the odds of receiving a positive amount of military aid to identify the causal effect of militarized policing on crime. We find that (i) military aid reduces street-level crime; (ii) the program is cost-effective; and (iii) there is evidence in favor of a deterrence mechanism.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Militarization of police -- Mathematical models -- United States, Law enforcement -- Mathematical models -- United States, Police -- Mathematical models -- United States | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | American Economic Journal: Economic Policy | ||||||
| Publisher: | American Economic Association | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1945-7731 | ||||||
| Official Date: | August 2017 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 9 | ||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1-18 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1257/pol.20150478 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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