RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Tough on Young Offenders
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 1276
OP 1310
DO 10.3368/jhr.57.4.1017-9113R3
VO 57
IS 4
A1 Giulia Lotti
YR 2022
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/4/1276.abstract
AB How harshly should society punish young lawbreakers? Through a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, I compare harsh and rehabilitative criminal incarceration practices. Young offenders sent to the more rehabilitative youth facilities become less likely to reoffend. On the contrary, offenders at the margin of the age cutoff and exposed to the harsher youth facilities are 27 percent more likely to recidivate in the eight years subsequent to their custody, and they are more likely to commit violent offenses, thefts, and criminal damages. Keeping young offenders separate from their older peers in prison seems effective, but only in institutions not solely focused on punishment.