NCJ Number
107476
Journal
Journal of Public Economics Volume: 32 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1987) Pages: 70-99
Date Published
1987
Length
30 pages
Annotation
Becker (1968) has argued that law enforcement agents should and do select levels of detection and punishment that minimize the social loss of crime.
Abstract
In Becker's view, they should weigh the costs of conviction and punishment, including the cost of punishment to the offender, against the social cost of crime. In this article, the social loss function implicitly minimized in the intake processing of juvenile offenders is estimated using data for a sample of 783 male and 174 female juvenile offenders whose cases were disposed in 1982 by 9 sheriff's stations and 12 juvenile justice centers. In this sample, 98 percent of dispositions were counsel and release, diversion to a social agency, release pending court petition, or pretrial detention. Observed treatment of offenders was consistent with the view that a social loss function is being minimized, where the effect of punishment on the crime rate and on the social cost of punishment are taken into account together with the direct social harm due to offenses. Hence, Becker's approach is descriptive of actual decision processes within the juvenile justice system. However, the calculation of social costs appears to ignore both the cost of punishment to the offender and the seriousness of the crime. 4 tables, and 17 references.