This Slate article discusses a new econometric study that apparently shows juvenile criminals don’t lower their criminal behavior when they become 18 and can receive stiffer penalties.
On the one hand, as a libertarian (not to mention a pacifist) I love stuff like this: The State fails in its use of stolen tax dollars and barbaric punishments!
On the other hand, as an economist this shocks me. Even though I believe crime rates would drop if the State got out of the prison market altogether, even so I would have predicted that increasing the penalties on a particular crime, holding all else equal, would lower its occurence.
Any thoughts?
