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Date: April 24, 2024 Wed
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35 results foundAuthor: Lithuanian Free Market Institute Title: A Study on Economic Causes of Smuggling Summary: From the report: "The purpose of this study is to analyse economic causes and preconditions of smuggling and to offer proposals for eliminating them. This study looks at market forces behind smuggling and identifies and explores economic causes and preconditions of smuggling. Economic policy measures that would help to eliminate the causes and preconditions of smuggling are proposed." Details: Vilnius, Lithuania: 2004. 38p. Source: Year: 2004 Country: Lithuania URL: Shelf Number: 116188 Keywords: EconomicsSmuggling |
Author: Besley, Timothy Title: Estimating the Peace Dividend: The Impact of Violence on House Prices in Northern Ireland Summary: This paper exploits data on the patterns of violence across regions and over time to estimate the impact of the peace process in Northern Ireland on house prices. Details: London: Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2009. 45p. Source: IFS Working Paper W09/18 Year: 2009 Country: United Kingdom URL: Shelf Number: 116472 Keywords: Costs of Crime (Northern Ireland)EconomicsViolent Crime (Northern Ireland) |
Author: Cyrus, Norbert Title: Trafficking for Labour and Sexual Exploitation in Germany Summary: Germany is an important destination country for migrant workers from around the world. Many of them work on the basis of mutually beneficial agreements made with their employers, but many are forced into submission by deception, threats, abuse, fraud and coercion. The migrant workers enter the country through clandestine channels or as asylum seekers, seasonal labor migrants, visitors or students. This study aims to demonstrate that migrant workers are forced into submission and thus increase profit margins. This is most often the case in those labor-intensive economic sectors that are encountering even more competition on global markets. Details: Geneva: International Labour Office, 2005. 91p. Source: Year: 2005 Country: Germany URL: Shelf Number: 111925 Keywords: EconomicsForced LaborHuman Trafficking (Germany)Migrant Labor (Germany)Sexual Exploitation |
Author: Leeson, Peter T. Title: Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices Summary: This paper investigates the profit-maximizing strategies of violent criminal organizations by examining the economics of infamous pirate practices. The paper explores three practices pirates used to reduce tne costs and enhance the revenues of their criminal enterprise. First, the paper examines the priate flag, the Jolly Roger, which pirates used to signal their identity as unconstrained outlaws, enabling them to take prizes without costly conflict. Second, the article considers how pirates combine heinous torture, public displays of madness, and published advertisement of their fiendishness to establish a fearsome reputation and piratical brand name that prevented costly captive behaviors. Third, the article analyzes how pirates used artificial impressment to mitigate the increased risk of pirating in the 18th century as a result of English legal innovations. The unique context in which pirates sought profits, not a difference in pirate rationality, explains pirates' eccentric and often bizarre behavior. Pirates' infamous practices improved their efficiencey "on the account" enhancing their criminal enterprise's profitability. Details: Fairfax, VA: Department of Economics, George Mason University, 2009(?). 40p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 113551 Keywords: Criminal BehaviorCriminal EnterpriseEconomicsOrganized CrimePirates |
Author: Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo Title: Issues in Estimating the Economic Cost of Drug Abuse in Consuming Nations Summary: This report considers the current feasibility of constructing an estimate of the global cost of drug use. While national estimates exist for seven developed countries, most countries have yet to construct a comprehensive estimate. Furthermore, it is impossible to compare the existing national estimates because of differences in the construction, which may reflect varying political and social environments that influence the nature of use and its related harms. The report lays out a conceptual framework for initiating the construction of country-specific estimates in a fashion that would facilitate cross-national comparisons. It demonstrates the difficulty in trying to implement this framework using existing data, as current data available in the various countries suffer from inconsistencies in definitions, coverage, and measurement. The pitfalls and assumptions necessary to construct a comparable estimate using existing data, therefore, are quite significant. The report concludes that it is not possible at this time to develop a meaningful comparative estimate of the cost of drug use across countries. However, it points out that steps could be taken to improve the consistency of measurement in many of the indicators in future years through coordinated international efforts, not unlike that currently being undertaken by the EMCDDA for the European Community. Details: Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2009. 47p. Source: Internet Resource; Report 3 Year: 2009 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 117656 Keywords: Drug Abuse and AddictionDrug and Narcotic ControlEconomicsNarcoticsSubstance Abuse |
Author: Rosenthal, Stuart S. Title: Violent Crime, Entrepreneurship, and Cities Summary: This paper estimates the impact of violent crime on the location of business activity and entrepreneurship in five U.S. cities. Central to our analysis is the idea that different sectors of the economy will sort into high- and low-crime areas depending on their relative sensitivity to crime. We illustrate this by comparing retail industries to their wholesale counterparts, and highend restaurants to low-end eateries. Because retail industries are dependent on pedestrian shoppers, they are expected to be especially sensitive to violent crime. Because high-end restaurants are dependent on evening business, they are expected to be especially sensitive to violent crime over the prime dinner hours. Findings indicate that retail, wholesale, high- and low-end restaurants are all more active in areas with higher local rates of violent crime, even after conditioning on an extensive set of model controls. This could arise because violent crime is attracted to our target industries. This also likely reflects that other sectors of the economy outbid our target industries for safer locations (e.g. residential). Further analysis confirms such sorting behavior. Retailers are more likely to locate in safer locations as compared to wholesalers in the same industry. Among restaurants, an increase in violent crime during the prime dinner hours equivalent to the sample max/min range would decrease the high-end share of local restaurants by roughly 40 percentage points. These findings indicate that entrepreneurs take violent crime into account when bidding for locations within a city. These finding also indicate that efforts to make distressed portions of cities more vibrant must give consideration to the need to ensure that such areas are safe. Details: Syracuse, NY: Department of Economics, Syracuse University, 2009. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 15, 2010 at: http://www.cepr.org/meets/wkcn/2/2409/papers/rosenthalfinal.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.cepr.org/meets/wkcn/2/2409/papers/rosenthalfinal.pdf Shelf Number: 119804 Keywords: BusinessesEconomicsNeighborhoods and CrimeRetail CrimeViolent Crime |
Author: King, Rawle O. Title: Ocean Piracy and Its Impact on Insurance Summary: Many Members of 111th Congress are concerned about the sharp rise in pirate attacks in the strategic waterways in the Gulf of Aden off the East coast of Africa. The hijacking of a Saudi Arabia-owned oil tanker, Sirius Star, off the coast of Kenya on November 15, 2008, by pirates, and its release after a $3 million ransom payment on January 8, 2009, was another in a series of seizures and releases that have focused worldwide attention on economic and humanitarian threats posed by pirates to the global seafaring community and the smooth flow of international trade. Given the sharp increase in the number of pirate attacks, the cost of transporting cargo in international waters could rise dramatically because of the sharp increase in ocean marine insurance rates for ships transiting the Gulf of Aden. Commercial insurers, for example, could require a special war risk insurance premium costing an additional ten of thousands of dollars a day. These additional costs could adversely impact international trade during the current global economic slowdown. In addition to proposals for military deterrence and diplomatic engagements, policymakers may elect to consider adjustments to the federal statute (Title XII of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, as amended) that authorizes the federal government to underwrite marine war risk insurance in circumstances such as piracy. Title XII, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportations Maritime Administration, authorizes the federal government to act as an insurer or reinsurer of last resort to facilitate waterborne commerce should private ocean marine insurance markets not be able to ensure that financial losses due to war risks (and piracy) will be largely covered. Policymakers may also elect to maintain the status quo on this statutory authority. The property and casualty insurance industry policyholder surplus is calculated to be approximately $505 billion (as of June 2008). Vessel hull and war risk premiums in the U.S. market paid to insurers totaled approximately $350 million in 2007, and the total value of cargo insurance premiums paid in that year was approximately $833 million, according to industry data. Some may contend, as a result, that the insurance industry appears to be financially capable of handling U.S. exposure to the current piracy threat and that the existing policy backstop will be adequate. This report will be updated as events warrant. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2008. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 15, 2010 at: http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40081_20090206.pdf Year: 2008 Country: International URL: http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40081_20090206.pdf Shelf Number: 119809 Keywords: Costs of CrimeEconomicsInsurance and CrimeMaritime CrimePirates |
Author: Johnson, Ryan Title: Striking at the Roots of Crime: The Impact of Social Welfare Spending on Crime During the Great Depression Summary: The Great Depression of the 1930s led contemporaries to worry that people hit by hard times would turn to crime in their efforts to survive. Franklin Roosevelt argued that the unprecedented and massive expansion in relief efforts “struck at the roots of crime” by providing subsistence income to needy families. After constructing a panel data set for 81 large American cities for the years 1930 through 1940, we estimate the impact of relief spending by all levels of government on crime rates. The analysis suggests that a ten percent increase in relief spending during the 1930s lowered property crime by roughly 1.5 percent. By limiting the amount of free time for relief recipients, work relief was more effective than direct relief in reducing crime. More generally, our results indicate that social insurance, which tends to be understudied in economic analyses of crime, should be more explicitly and more carefully incorporated into the analysis of temporal and spatial variations in criminal activity. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series; Working Paper 12825: Accessed October 25, 2010 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12825.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12825.pdf Shelf Number: 120070 Keywords: EconomicsProperty CrimeSocial WelfareSpatial AnalysisUnemployment |
Author: Aos, Steve Title: Fight Crime and Save Money: Development of an Investment Tool for States to Study Sentencing and Corrections Public Policy Options: Progress Report Summary: Can knowledge about “what works” to reduce crime be used to help a state achieve a win-win outcome of: (1) lower crime, and (2) lower taxpayer spending? This progress report describes the work underway by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to develop an analytical tool for Washington, and perhaps other states, to identify evidence-based policy options to reduce crime rates and lower the taxpayer costs of the criminal justice system. The Pew Charitable Trusts contracted with WSIPP to: (1) develop the tool, (2) apply it to the policy process currently underway in Washington State, and (3) help Pew make the tool available to other states. We do not present “bottom-line” results in this report. Rather, this progress report simply describes the structure of the tool being constructed. The current plan calls for initial estimates by August 2010. In addition, the tool will be used to support the work of the legislatively directed study being conducted by the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission. Details: Olympia, WA: Washington State Institute for Public Policy, 2010. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 3, 2010 at: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/10-04-1201.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/10-04-1201.pdf Shelf Number: 120179 Keywords: Costs of Criminal JusticeCriminal Justice PolicyEconomicsEvidence-Based PolicySentencing Policies |
Author: Mansfield, David Title: Governance, Security and Economic Growth: The Determinants of Opium Poppy Cultivation in the Districts of Jurm and Baharak in Badakhshan Summary: As this report shows the evidence from the centre of Baharak district in Badakhshan is that given the right conditions many households can prosper despite ceasing or significantly reducing opium poppy cultivation. Opium poppy remains an input intensive crop. Not only does land have to be set aside for its cultivation but also water, seed, farm power and most importantly of all labour. When the opportunity cost of allocating these inputs to opium production rise due to the growth in the market for high value vegetable production, the recovery of livestock prices and significant increases in wage labour opportunities, households can make the shift from opium poppy cultivation to legal economic opportunities without enduring economic and political shocks. For instance, it no longer looks as economically attractive to allocate family members to work on such a labour intensive crop as opium poppy cultivation when salaried employment and consistent wage labour opportunities are available, particularly when opium prices are falling. Neither does it make sense to hire a workforce for opium poppy cultivation to substitute for this now gainfully employed family labour given relatively high wage labour rates. Instead it is rational to cultivate less labour intensive crops that can be managed largely utilising the remaining supply of household labour. Of course it is even more conducive to the household if these crops fetch good prices, attract traders to purchase them at the farmgate and obtain advance payments, as is currently the case in central Baharak. Land can also be allocated to fodder crops that are again less labour intensive and serve to increase the value added of livestock which has seen a recovery in prices and market size. As such, combining wage labour opportunities with high value cash crops and livestock production not only has the potential to generate a higher return to household resources but can also offer greater security than simply cultivating opium poppy. Of course in this scenario ‘security’ is not only a function of the different income streams available which act as a safety net against crop or market failure, but also a consequence of the household operating within the ‘rule of law’ and therefore less vulnerable to the potential excesses of both state and non-state actors. In this situation a household will also more often than not be a recipient of public goods such as education, health, physical infrastructure, as well as physical security which all serve to improve economic opportunities and extend social contract between the state and community. As experience in other former opium poppy growing areas in countries like Thailand and Pakistan illustrate once these gains are consolidated farmers are unlikely to return to opium production even when famgate prices increase significantly. However, this paper also shows that the opportunity cost of allocating household resources to opium poppy is not rising for all, indeed these development are typically highly localised and concentrated around central Baharak. In contrast in the more remote areas of Baharak district and across much of the neighbouring district of Jurm, circumstances are such that agricultural commodity and labour markets remain constrained. Limited natural assets, such as land and water, combined with poor roads and high transportation costs preclude the shift to high value vegetable production. Some recovery in livestock is taking place but the benefits of this tend to be concentrated amongst the relatively wealthy who have often restocked their herds using the proceeds from their opium crop. In these areas opium poppy persists all be it at lower levels than in 2006. In the more remote parts of the district of Baharak there is potential for opium to cease once infrastructure is improved, and more marginal households restock their herds and gain better access to labour markets through a growth in labour demand and/or skill development. Wage labour opportunities in Iran will continue to be seen as an important safety valve for households who cannot meet their basic needs by participating in local agricultural and labour markets. In the district of Jurm the prognosis is more bleak. The biggest constraint on reducing opium poppy in this area is the insecurity and poor governance that is currently stymieing the growth of the legal economy. Here the political and financial interests of competing commanders will only serve to continue high levels of dependency on opium production and prevent households making sustainable shifts to legal economic options. There is a danger that the growing insecurity in the centre of the district has a knock on effect in the upper areas in which currently the local commanders remain relatively inactive. In the centre of Jurm the uncertain political and security environment is already impacting on investment decisions. Attempts by the local and central authorities to reduce opium poppy cultivation are viewed with disdain and seen as part of a wider attempt by local commanders to reinforce their political and economic grip over the area. It is also impacting on the legal economy reducing disposable income and subsequently sales and employment opportunities. This in turn is further weakening the relationship between the state and local communities. As such there is a real risk that the political need for short-term results on levels of cultivation could undermine attempts to deliver sustainable development and counter narcotics outcomes. In such an environment greater focus needs to be given to stabilising the security and governance environment through anti corruption measures and extending service delivery, as well as promoting economic growth. It would appear that counter narcotics efforts such as eradication efforts may well have to wait until these pre-requisites are put in place and farmers have viable alternatives to opium poppy cultivation. Details: Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), 2007. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 9, 2010 at: http://www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/en-eod-report-Badakhshan.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.gtz.de/de/dokumente/en-eod-report-Badakhshan.pdf Shelf Number: 120270 Keywords: EconomicsNarcoticsOpiumPoppy Cultivation |
Author: Campos, Nauro F. Title: Whither Corruption? A Quantitative Survey of the Literature on Corruption and Growth Summary: Does corruption grease or sand the wheels of economic growth? This paper uses metaanalysis techniques to systematically evaluate the evidence addressing this question. It uses a data set comprising 460 estimates of the effect of corruption on growth from 41 empirical studies. The main factors explaining the variation in these estimates are whether the model accounts for institutions and trade openness (both are found to deflate the negative effect of corruption), authors' affiliation (academics systematically report less negative impacts), and use of fixed-effects. We also find that publication bias, albeit somewhat acute, does not eliminate the genuine negative effect of corruption on economic growth. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor, 2010. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper Series No. 5334: Accessed December 3, 2010 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp5334.pdf Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp5334.pdf Shelf Number: 120368 Keywords: CorruptionEconomics |
Author: Geller, Bill Title: Building Our Way Out of Crime: The Transformative Power of Police-Community Developer Partnerships Summary: Building Our Way Out of Crime: The Transformative Power of Police-Community Developer Partnerships describes and analyzes innovative efforts in communities across the United States to reduce crime in and improve the economic vitality of blighted neighborhoods. By working together, local police, nonprofit community developers, elected and appointed officials, financial strategists, and community leaders can do more with less, converting crime hot spots that ruin entire neighborhoods and consume considerable police services into safety-generating community assets. Case studies, photographs, charts, and lessons learned demonstrate the power these partnerships have for transforming troubled neighborhoods in cost-effective ways into stable, healthy, and sustainable communities. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Police Services, 2010. 376p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 14, 2011 at: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/BldgOurWayOutOfCrime_ALL%20BkMk_5-19-10_10-06pm234.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/BldgOurWayOutOfCrime_ALL%20BkMk_5-19-10_10-06pm234.pdf Shelf Number: 120767 Keywords: Crime Prevention PartnershipsEconomicsNeighborhoods and CrimePolice-Community Relations |
Author: Berry, David Title: The Socioeconomic Impact of Pretrial Detention Summary: Approximately 10 million people per year pass through pretrial detention; many of them will spend months or even years behind bars —without being tried or found guilty. Locking away millions of people who are presumed innocent is a waste of human potential that undermines economic development. The economic effects of excessive pretrial detention — from lost wages to misspent government resources — are documented in this report. The study attempts for the first time to count the full cost of excessive pretrial detention, including lost employment, stunted economic growth, the spread of disease and corruption, and the misuse of state resources. Combining statistics, personal accounts, and recommendations for reform, The Socioeconomic Impact of Pretrial Detention provides empirical arguments against the overuse of pretrial detention. Details: New York: Open Society Foundations, 2011. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 18, 2011 at: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/focus/criminal_justice/articles_publications/publications/socioeconomic-impact-detention-20110201/socioeconomic-impact-pretrial-detention-02012011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/justice/focus/criminal_justice/articles_publications/publications/socioeconomic-impact-detention-20110201/socioeconomic-impact-pretrial-detention-02012011.pdf Shelf Number: 121065 Keywords: EconomicsPretrial Detention |
Author: Harris, Thomas R. Title: The Economic Impact of the California Prison Industry Authority on the California Economy for FY 2008/09 Summary: The California Prison Industry Authority was created by statute in 1982 as a semiautonomous state agency to operate California prison industries in a manner similar to private industry. The California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) trains inmate‐workers to produce a variety of goods and services in factories at correctional institutions throughout California. These production activities provide a variety of uses to the state including: (1) training of inmates who acquire work habits and skills; (2) the supervision of inmates in a secure environment; and (3) the provision of goods and services to the state of California public sector agencies. Each of these services has an economic dimension in terms of contributing value added to the state economy. In this report, the contributions of CALPIA to the state of California’s economy are estimated. CALPIA is a self‐supporting government agency. CALPIA sales increased by 50.9 percent from 1996/97 fiscal year to 2008/09 fiscal year, giving them the largest sales ($234.2 million) of any state’s prison industry in the U.S. This sales increase is noteworthy given that CALPIA can only sell to the public sector. CALPIA has approximately 619 civilian employees as well as approximately 6,010 inmates in California’s adult correctional institutions, operating over 60 service, manufacturing, and agricultural industries at 22 prisons throughout California. CALPIA uses its revenues to cover its costs such as purchasing raw materials, providing inmate supervision, inmate payroll, transporting and distributing its products, acquiring capital, and supporting the central office. The Prison Industry Board was established in 1983 to oversee operations of CALPIA. The Board sets general policy for CALPIA, appointing a General Manager, monitoring existing operations, and deciding which new industries to enter. The Board serves as a public hearing body charged with ensuring that the operations of CALPIA are self‐sufficient. The Board actively solicits public input in its decisions with regard to expanding existing or developing new prison industries. CALPIA customers are limited to government entities, except as specified by law. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is CALPIA’s largest customer, purchasing more than half of CALPIA's total annual production of goods and services. This study estimates California’s economic, employment, and household income impacts arising from the production of goods and services by inmates working in CALPIA. This analysis will derive the total and sectoral output, employment and income impacts of CALPIA on the economy of the state of California. As a producer of goods and services, CALPIA is linked to the state economy in several ways. Most importantly, CALPIA purchases intermediate inputs (materials) for further processing in its factories. This study utilizes economic models of the state of California that translates these intermediate input purchases into sales by place of production so that the multiplier effects of CALPIA on the state economy can be estimated. Details: Sacramento: California Prison Industry Authority, 2010. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 22, 2011 at: http://www.pia.ca.gov/public_affairs/pdfs/CALPIA%20Economic%20Impact%20Study%2008-09.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.pia.ca.gov/public_affairs/pdfs/CALPIA%20Economic%20Impact%20Study%2008-09.pdf Shelf Number: 121477 Keywords: EconomicsPrison Industries (California)Prison Labor |
Author: Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu Title: Immigration Policy and Counterterrorism Summary: A terrorist group, based in a developing (host) country, draws unskilled and skilled labor from the productive sector to conduct attacks at home and abroad. The host nation chooses proactive countermeasures, while accounting for the terrorist campaign. Moreover, a targeted developed nation decides its optimal mix of immigration quotas and defensive counterterrorism actions. Even though proactive measures in the host country may not curb terrorism at home, it may still be advantageous in terms of national income. Increases in the unskilled immigration quota augment terrorism against the developed country; increases in the skilled immigration quota may or may not raise terrorism against the developed country. When the developed country assumes a leadership role, it strategically augments its terrorism defenses and reduces its unskilled immigration quota to induce more proactive measures in the host country. The influence of leadership on the skilled immigration quota is more nuanced. Details: St. Louis, MO: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Research Division, 2011. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper Series; Working Paper 2011-012A: Accessed May 4, 2011 at: http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2011/2011-012.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2011/2011-012.pdf Shelf Number: 121613 Keywords: CounterterrorismEconomicsImmigrantsImmigration PolicyTerrorismTerrorists |
Author: Bandyopadhyay, Siddhartha Title: An Analysis of the Factors Determining Crime in England and Wales: A Quantile Regression Approach Summary: We examine how socio-economic and police enforcement variables affect property and violent crimes at different points of the crime distribution in England and Wales over the period 1992-2007. By using data from 43 police force areas, we examine how the effect of real earnings, unemployment, crime detection rate, income inequality and proportion of young people varies across high and low crime areas. Six crime categories are examined - burglary, theft and handling, fraud and forgery, violence against the person, robbery, and sexual assault. Using a quantile regression model, we find that there are statistically significant differences in the impact of explanatory variables on various crime rates for low and high crime areas. For example, not only does unemployment increase crime but it does so more in high crime areas. Higher detection rates reduce crime rates and the effect is stronger in low crime areas. There are also differences in distributional impact on crime rates for real earnings, income inequality and proportion of young people. Thus, our work points to the need to look beyond the usual mean effects of policing and socio-economic factors on crime and consider their impact on the entire distribution of crime rates. This will enable us to tailor policies that are particularly effective at different points in the crime distribution. Further, given the differential impact of earnings and unemployment across high and low crime areas this provides insight into why paradoxically recessions may have no impact on crime or even lower it. Details: Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham, Department of Economics, 2011. 17p. Source: Internet Resource: Department of Economics Discussion Paper 11-12: Accessed July 18, 2011 at: ftp://ftp.bham.ac.uk/pub/RePEc/pdf/11-12.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: Shelf Number: 122083 Keywords: Crime RatesCrime StatisticsEconomicsPovertySocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeUnemployment |
Author: Dhami, Sanjit Title: The Behavioral Economics of Crime and Punishment Summary: The celebrated Becker proposition (BP) states that it is optimal to impose the severest possible punishment (to maintain effective deterrence) at the lowest possible probability of detection (to economize on enforcement costs). However, the BP is not consistent with the evidence. This inconsistency is known as the Becker paradox. In fact, the BP is a general result that applies to all low-probability events that lead to 'unbounded loss' of utility. Hence, it is applicable to a wide class of problems in economics. We clarify the BP and its welfare implications under expected utility, which remains the favoured framework. We argue that none of the proposed explanations of the Becker paradox is satisfactory. We show that the BP also holds under rank dependent expected utility and cumulative prospect theory, the two main alternatives to expected utility. We show that composite prospect theory (CCP), of al-Nowaihi and Dhami (2010a), can resolve the Becker paradox. Our paper opens the way for incorporating non-expected utility theories into the economic analysis of criminal activity. Details: Leicester, UK: University of Leicester, Department of Economics, 2010. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 10/14: Accessed August 15, 2011 at: http://www.le.ac.uk/ec/research/RePEc/lec/leecon/dp10-14.pdf Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://www.le.ac.uk/ec/research/RePEc/lec/leecon/dp10-14.pdf Shelf Number: 122387 Keywords: DeterrenceEconomicsPunishment |
Author: Bond, Brenda J. Title: Facing the Economic Crisis: Challenges for Massachusetts Police Chiefs Summary: Police chiefs across Massachusetts are embroiled in an extraordinary management struggle – balancing unrelenting public safety demands while adapting to drastic reductions in resources. The general public may not instinctively think of local police chiefs as executive-level managers engulfed by the financial and operational effectiveness of their organizations, but the exceptional financial state of the Commonwealth and municipalities requires a new level of human and financial management by police chiefs and local administrators. There remain high expectations from the community and local officials as a result of community policing and increased community participation in public safety and increased pressures for transparency and accountability. The interplay between these factors calls for a more sophisticated system for managing the contemporary police organization. More than simply “top cops,” today’s police chiefs must serve as a public safety executive, identifying ways to maintain and improve public safety in the face of rapidly declining resources, increasing costs, and limited flexibility in this time of economic adversity. To understand the experiences and challenges of local police chiefs, we interviewed six (6) Massachusetts police chiefs who represent the Commonwealth’s “Middle Cities.” In-depth interviews offered insight into the operational, strategic and community challenges facing police chiefs as a result of the state’s current economic crisis. Police chiefs reported on the significant management resources directed towards developing and revising budgets, an inescapable side-effect of the constantly changing financial environment. While their experiences and strategies mimic many in the private and non-profit sectors, the pressures surrounding budgetary decision making are decidedly different for public safety managers. Investments in community policing strategies are being tested, and increasing expectations to demonstrate value to citizens and civic leaders alike create additional pressures on public safety leaders. The chiefs interviewed expressed frustration with two common and reasonable demands: to engage with the public in a meaningful and valuable way and direct sufficient resources to emergency calls for service. While the chiefs have been able to balance these proactive and responsive services, they report that it is increasingly difficult to do. Financial predictions for the coming fiscal years are dismal, and chiefs are holding on to those strategies which allow them to get the biggest bang for their buck. These chiefs believe that safe and thriving communities require continued investment in proactive work and emergency response strategies, and they believe community economic development is directly linked to public safety. As a result, the chiefs are being strategic in the way that they address resource shortfalls. Grant programs from state and federal governments allow the chiefs to address technology or equipment shortcomings, among other gaps, and their agencies aggressively pursue these resources. Further, they are committed to partnerships with local, state, federal, non-profit organizations, and the community. Through these partnerships they work to sustain the many gains achieved through the adoption of community and problem-oriented policing. The community connections, innovative and proactive engagement, and resource multiplication that have been realized through these partnerships have helped them get through this time of financial shortfall. This paper provides a brief account of experiences and challenges facing police chiefs in several midsized cities in Massachusetts, the factors which impact their decision making and the strategies they utilize, and discusses the various ways in which chiefs are adapting to changing financial and social contexts. Details: Boston: Pioneer Institute, 2010. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: White Paper, No. 58: Accessed September 2, 2011 at: http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/100426_facing_economic_crisis.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/pdf/100426_facing_economic_crisis.pdf Shelf Number: 122617 Keywords: CollaborationCosts of Criminal JusticeEconomicsPartnershipsPolice AdministratorsPolicing (Massachusetts) |
Author: Police Executive Research Forum Title: Is the Economic Downturn Fundamentally Changing How We Police? Summary: This report is not the first that PERF has published on the topic of the economic crisis that has been impacting police departments since 2008. In January 2009, we conducted a survey of police departments and found that nearly two-thirds of them were already preparing plans for an overall cut in their funding for the next fiscal year. And we produced a report with the title, Violent Crime and the Economic Crisis: Police Chiefs Face a New Challenge. Over the last 23 months, there has been a growing discussion about whether a “new normal” is being imposed on police agencies, about whether budget cuts are causing permanent changes in how we do our business. Thus, the title of this new report: Is the Economic Downturn Fundamentally Changing How We Police? So this report does not just tell a story about yesterday. Now we are telling a story about yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The basic facts reflect a harsh reality. A new survey that we conducted in September 2010 found that slightly more than half of the responding police departments suffered cuts in their total funding in the 2010 fiscal year, and among those agencies, the average cut was 7 percent. Furthermore, 59 percent of those departments are preparing to cut their budgets again in 2011. Overall, among all departments surveyed, there has been a 3-percent decrease in the average number of sworn officers. This report recounts compelling stories, as told by police chiefs who attended a Summit we held in Washington on September 30, 2010, of what those cuts mean in terms of daily police operations. The cuts mean layoffs, unpaid furloughs, reductions in officer training and in the development of technology, elimination of special units such as gang and drug units, and other ways of reaching budget targets. Details: Washington, DC: PERF, 2010. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Critical Issues in Policing Series: Accessed September 16, 2011 at: http://www.policeforum.org/library/critical-issues-in-policing-series/Econdownturnaffectpolicing12.10.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.policeforum.org/library/critical-issues-in-policing-series/Econdownturnaffectpolicing12.10.pdf Shelf Number: 122755 Keywords: Costs of Crime (U.S.)Costs of Criminal JusticeEconomicsPolice AdministrationPolice Agencies |
Author: Police Executive Research Forum Title: Violent Crime and the Economic Crisis: Police Chiefs Face a New Challenge: PART I Summary: If there is one thing that police chiefs can count on, it’s that they will constantly be faced with new challenges and problems. Less than a year ago, the issues at the top of many chiefs’ agendas had to do with recent spikes in violent crime, dealing with gang-related crime, and for some departments, the hot-button issue of immigration enforcement at the local level. But then came the 2008 economic crisis, and with it the reductions in many local jurisdictions’ tax bases. Suddenly, the most pressing issue for many chiefs was how they were going to manage 5-percent cuts in their current-year budgets, with 10- or 20-percent cuts next year, and who knows what after that. Should they cut some programs to the bone in order to avoid any reductions in sworn personnel? Or cut some sworn personnel in order to avoid devastating damage to training programs or needed technological upgrades? And what will the cuts mean to the progress that has been made in crime control and community policing? None of the choices look good, and it doesn’t help that chiefs had little or no warning of the budget calamity. But that is the world of local police executives — every day, tough decisions that cannot be avoided. This report reflects the upheavals that have occurred in recent months. It is part of PERF’s Critical Issues in Policing series, which for several years has aimed to track the issues of greatest concern to police departments. We talk to chiefs every day and hear what’s on their minds; we conduct surveys to gather information on the emerging issues; and we hold Summits where chiefs and mayors come together to talk about their problems and compare notes about the solutions they are developing. This year, we conducted our Critical Issues survey in the last week of July, and began by asking chiefs for their latest crime statistics, as we have done several times since we first noticed that violent crime levels in many cities spiked in 2005. We also asked about the factors that chiefs saw as contributing to the crime problems in their jurisdictions. But as we were writing the questions for this year’s survey, it already was becoming clear that the national economy was in serious trouble. Many of the bad headlines did not come until later — Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, the $700-billion financial industry rescue bill, and the auto industry crisis, to name a few. But the Bear Stearns collapse and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts had already occurred, and we were already hearing anecdotal reports that police budgets were being hurt. So we added some questions to our survey about the economic crisis, and the results were startling. As detailed later in this report, nearly 40 percent of the responding agencies said they had already experienced a decrease in their operating budgets. Details: Washington, DC: PERF, 2009. 60p. Source: Internet Resource: Critical Issues in Policing Series: Accessed September 16, 2011 at: http://policeforum.org/library/critical-issues-in-policing-series/VCrime&EconomyI.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://policeforum.org/library/critical-issues-in-policing-series/VCrime&EconomyI.pdf Shelf Number: 122757 Keywords: Costs of Criminal JusticeEconomicsPolice Administration (U.S.)Police Agencies |
Author: Pedroni, Peter Title: The Relationship Between Illicit Coca Production and Formal Economic Activity in Peru Summary: This paper investigates the relationship between unrecorded economic activity associated with the production of illicit coca and formally recorded economic activity in Peru. It does so by attempting to construct new regional level estimates for coca production and by implementing recently developed panel time series methods that are robust to regional heterogeneity and unobserved regional inter-dependencies. The paper finds that on balance illicit coca production crowds out formal sector production at the regional level, regardless of whether unanticipated changes occur nationally or regionally. However, total output nevertheless increases, since formal sector production is crowded out less than one for one. Details: Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2011. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: IMF Working Paper WP/11/182: Accessed September 24, 2011 at: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp11182.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Peru URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp11182.pdf Shelf Number: 122891 Keywords: Cocaine (Peru)EconomicsIllicit Drugs |
Author: Baxter, Tom Title: Alabama's Immigration Disaster: The Harshest Law in the Land Harms the State's Economy and Society Summary: In June 2011 Alabama passed the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, H.B. 56. The law, which took effect in late September, lives up to its billing as the nation’s toughest immigration bill and goes well beyond the Arizona law (S.B. 1070) on which it was based. H.B. 56 requires schools to check and report the immigration status of their students and bars undocumented students from postsecondary education. It instructs police to demand proof of immigration status from anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally, even on a routine traffic stop or roadblock. It also invalidates any contract knowingly entered into with an illegal alien, including routine agreements such as a rent contract, and makes it a felony for an unauthorized immigrant to enter into a contract with a government entity. Finally, it goes beyond any previous legislation by effectively making it a crime to be undocumented in the state. The law’s impact, by virtue of the fact that much of it went into effect, has been swift and detrimental to the state, with a significant exodus of Latinos. But in a state already ravaged by tornadoes and lagging in economic recovery, the costs and social effects of the law have been particularly harsh. Overall, as Professor Samuel Addy of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration has illustrated, because of H.B. 56, Alabama could lose up to $10.8 billion (or 6.2 percent of its gross domestic product), up to 140,000 jobs in the state, $264.5 million in state tax revenue, and $93 million in local tax revenue. These costs will all be incurred to drive out an undocumented population that is estimated to be only 2.5 percent of the state—a population that paid $130 million into the state’s tax coffers in 2010. Alabama’s agricultural industry and foreign investment are especially affected. Chad Smith, a tomato farmer, estimates that he could lose up to $300,000 in produce because of the lack of farmworkers who are now fleeing the state. And recent embarrassing incidents such as the arrest of Mercedes-Benz and Honda executives under the provisions of the new law jeopardize the presence of foreign companies, which give the state both a significant amount of money and a significant number of jobs—5 percent of the state’s workforce in 2009, the most recent year for which data are available. As bad as the economic impact is, though, the social and humanitarian costs are even higher. There are countless stories of families suddenly torn apart and lives disrupted, of frightened children and distraught parents faced with the choice of leaving their children behind to give them a better future. Not surprisingly, supporters and opponents of the law alike are already discussing changing it. Even Gov. Robert Bentley (R), an early proponent of the law, has acknowledged that he is working with the legislature to revise the immigration bill in the next session. This report reviews the economic and social harm caused by H.B. 56, arguing that the anti-immigration bills has, and will continue to cause severe damage to the agricultural industry, foreign investment, and civil rights. We contend that Republican legislators rushed into passing H.B. 56 without considering the economic effects of the law, following a national political debate led by such figures as the anti-immigrant Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), rather than the needs of their home state. Efforts to repeal the bill cannot possibly undo all of the harm wrought by H.B. 56 but repeal would go a long way at stopping the damage of a poorly conceived and hastily enacted measure. The best solution, though, comes not from the state but from Congress, which should step in to fix our broken immigration system and fill the void created by federal inaction. A sensible federal solution would establish smart enforcement policies, resolve the status of those illegally present in the United States, create flexible legal channels of immigration that serve the national interest, and curtail immigration outside of legal status. Details: Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2012. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 18, 2012 at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/pdf/alabama_immigration_disaster.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/pdf/alabama_immigration_disaster.pdf Shelf Number: 124176 Keywords: EconomicsIllegal ImmigrantsImmigration Laws (Alabama) |
Author: Barrett, Alan Title: Childhood Sexual Abuse and Later-Life Economic Consequences Summary: The impact of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) on later-life health outcomes has been studied extensively and links with depression, anxiety and self-harm have been established. However, there has been relatively little research undertaken on the possible impact of CSA on later-life economic outcomes. Here, we explore whether older men who report having experienced CSA have weaker labour force attachment and lower incomes compared to other men. We use data from the first wave of the new Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) which is a nationally-representative survey of people aged 50 and over. We find that male victims of CSA are almost four times more likely to be out of the labour force due to sickness and disability. They also spent a higher proportion of their potential working lives out of the labour force for these reasons and have lower incomes. These effects remain even when we control for mental health difficulties and negative health behaviors. Among the policy implications are the need to be more aware of the complex effects of CSA when designing labour market activation strategies such as training for the unemployed. The results are also relevant in the legal context where compensation awards are determined. Details: Bonn, Germany: IZA (The Institute for the Study of Labor), 2012. Source: IZA Discussion Paper No. 6332: Internet Resource: Accessed March 2, 2012 at http://ftp.iza.org/dp6332.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Europe URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6332.pdf Shelf Number: 124365 Keywords: Child Sexual AbuseEconomicsEmploymentVicitms of Crime |
Author: Congdon-Hohman, Joshua Title: The Lasting Effects of Crime: The Relationship of Discovered Methamphetamine Laboratories and Home Values Summary: This study estimates a household’s willingness to pay to avoid the stigma of crime while minimizing concerns of omitted variable bias. By assuming methamphetamine producers locate approximately at random within a narrowly defined neighborhood, this study is able to use hedonic estimation methods to estimate the impact of the discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory on the home values near that location. Specifically, the analysis designates those closest to the site as the treated, while those slightly farther away act as the comparison group. The discovery of a methamphetamine laboratory has a significant effect on the property values of those homes close to the location that peaks from six to 12 months after each lab’s discovery. The estimates found in this study range from a decrease in sale prices of ten to nineteen percent in the year following a laboratory’s discovery compared to the prices for homes that are farther away but still in the same neighborhood. Surprisingly, the impact does not appear to depend on intensity as both the discovery of a second lab and being very close to the discovered lab do not adversely impact home values. Details: Worcester, MA: Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross, 2011. 34p. Source: Faculty Research Series, Paper No. 11-14: Internet Resource: Accessed March 14, 2012 at http://college.holycross.edu/RePEc/hcx/Congdon_MethLabs.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://college.holycross.edu/RePEc/hcx/Congdon_MethLabs.pdf Shelf Number: 124544 Keywords: EconomicsHousingMethamphetamine |
Author: Bosello, Francesco Title: The Economic and Environmental Effects of an EU Ban on Illegal Logging Imports. Insights from a CGE Assessment Summary: Illegal logging is widely recognized as a major economic problem and one of the causes of environmental degradation. Increasing awareness of its negative effects has fostered a wide range of proposals to combat it by major international conservation groups and political organizations. Following the 2008 US legislation which prohibits the import of illegally harvested wood and wood products, the European Union (EU) is now discussing a legislation proposal which would ban illegal timber from the EU market. In this study we use the ICES computable general equilibrium model to estimate the reallocation of global demand and timber imports following the pending EU legislation. With this exercise our final objective is to assess the economic impacts and measure the potential emission reduction resulting from the introduction of this type of policy. Results show that while the EU ban does not seem particularly effective in reducing illegal logging activities, its main effect will be the removal of illegal logs from the international markets. In addition, the unilateral EU ban on illegal logs increases secondary wood production in illegal logging countries as their exports become relatively more competitive. Through this mechanism, part of the banned, illegal timber will re-enter the international trade flows, but it will be “hidden” as processed wood. This effect is, however, limited. Finally, given the limited effect on overall economic activity, effects on GHG emissions are also limited. Direct carbon emissions from logging activities can decrease from 2.5 to 0.6 million tons per year. Details: Venice: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), 2010. 34p. Source: FEEM Working Paper 67.2010: Internet Resource: Accessed March 17, 2012 at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1627988## Year: 2010 Country: Europe URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1627988## Shelf Number: 124567 Keywords: EconomicsIllegal LoggingOffenses Against the EnvironmentPollution |
Author: Hanson, Gordon H. Title: The Economic Logic of Illegal Immigration Summary: Illegal immigration is a source of mounting concern for politicians in the United States. In the past ten years, the U.S. population of illegal immigrants has risen from five million to nearly twelve million, prompting angry charges that the country has lost control over its borders. Congress approved measures last year that have significantly tightened enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to stop the flow of unauthorized migrants, and it is expected to make another effort this year at the first comprehensive reform of immigration laws in more than twenty years. Legal immigrants, who account for two-thirds of all foreign-born residents in the United States and 50 to 70 percent of net new immigrant arrivals, are less subject to public scrutiny. There is a widely held belief that legal immigration is largely good for the country and illegal immigration is largely bad. Despite intense differences of opinion in Congress, there is a strong consensus that if the United States could simply reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the country, either by converting them into legal residents or deterring them at the border, U.S. economic welfare would be enhanced. Is there any evidence to support these prevailing views? In terms of the economic benefits and costs, is legal immigration really better than illegal immigration? What should the United States as a country hope to achieve economically through its immigration policies? Are the types of legislative proposals that Congress is considering consistent with these goals? This Council Special Report addresses the economic logic of the current high levels of illegal immigration. The aim is not to provide a comprehensive review of all the issues involved in immigration, particularly those related to homeland security. Rather, it is to examine the costs, benefits, incentives, and disincentives of illegal immigration within the boundaries of economic analysis. From a purely economic perspective, the optimal immigration policy would admit individuals whose skills are in shortest supply and whose tax contributions, net of the cost of public services they receive, are as large as possible. Admitting immigrants in scarce occupations would yield the greatest increase in U.S. incomes, regardless of the skill level of those immigrants. In the United States, scarce workers would include not only highly educated individuals, such as the software programmers and engineers employed by rapidly expanding technology industries, but also low-skilled workers in construction, food preparation, and cleaning services, for which the supply of U.S. native labor has been falling. In either case, the national labor market for these workers is tight, in the sense that U.S. wages for these occupations are high relative to wages abroad. Of course, the aggregate economic consequences of immigration policy do not account for other important considerations, including the impact of immigration on national security, civil rights, or political life. Illegal immigration has obvious flaws. Continuing high levels of illegal immigration may undermine the rule of law and weaken the ability of the U.S. government to enforce labor-market regulations. There is an understandable concern that massive illegal entry from Mexico heightens U.S. exposure to international terrorism, although no terrorist activity to date has been tied to individuals who snuck across the U.S.-Mexico border. Large inflows of illegal aliens also relax the commitment of employers to U.S. labor-market institutions and create a population of workers with limited upward mobility and an uncertain place in U.S. society. These are obviously valid complaints that deserve a hearing in the debate on immigration policy reform. However, within this debate we hear relatively little about the actual magnitude of the costs and benefits associated with illegal immigration and how they compare to those for legal inflows. This analysis concludes that there is little evidence that legal immigration is economically preferable to illegal immigration. In fact, illegal immigration responds to market forces in ways that legal immigration does not. Illegal migrants tend to arrive in larger numbers when the U.S. economy is booming (relative to Mexico and the Central American countries that are the source of most illegal immigration to the United States) and move to regions where job growth is strong. Legal immigration, in contrast, is subject to arbitrary selection criteria and bureaucratic delays, which tend to disassociate legal inflows from U.S. labor-market conditions. Over the last half-century, there appears to be little or no response of legal immigration to the U.S. unemployment rate. Two-thirds of legal permanent immigrants are admitted on the basis of having relatives in the United States. Only by chance will the skills of these individuals match those most in demand by U.S. industries. While the majority of temporary legal immigrants come to the country at the invitation of a U.S. employer, the process of obtaining a visa is often arduous and slow. Once here, temporary legal workers cannot easily move between jobs, limiting their benefit to the U.S. economy. Details: Washington, DC: Council on Foreign Relations, 2007. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Council Special Report No. 26; Accessed May 8, 2012 at: http://www.cfr.org/immigration/economic-logic-illegal-immigration/p12969 Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.cfr.org/immigration/economic-logic-illegal-immigration/p12969 Shelf Number: 125171 Keywords: EconomicsIllegal AliensIllegal Immigrations (U.S.)Immigration |
Author: Social Research Unit Title: Investing in Children: Technical Report Summary: Building on the model developed by the renowned Washington State Institute for Public Policy in the United States (WSIPP), Investing in Children has taken an approach to cost-‐benefit analysis that is consistent across policy areas, cautious in its estimates and relevant to the real world of public and private sector investments in child health and development. The first two Investing in Children reports focus on Youth Justice and Early Years and Education respectively.1 This Technical Report should be read in conjunction with those reports. The Technical Report gives a brief overview of the two main approaches used in economic evaluation and summarises the cost-‐benefit approach originally developed by the WSIPP. It also describes the sources and assumptions that the SRU used in the cost-‐benefit model to estimate the economic value of programmes and approaches to reduce juvenile delinquency and improve educational outcomes for children. Details: Darlington, UK: Social Research Unit, 2012. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 6, 2012 at: http://www.dartington.org.uk/sites/default/files/IiC%20Technical%20Report%20April%202012.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.dartington.org.uk/sites/default/files/IiC%20Technical%20Report%20April%202012.pdf Shelf Number: 125483 Keywords: Cost Benefit Analysis (U.K.)Delinquency PreventionEconomics |
Author: Fischer, Carolyn Title: The Complex Interaction of Markets For Endangered Species Products Summary: Economic models of trade in endangered species products often do not incorporate four focal arguments in the policy debate over trade bans: 1) law-abiding consumers may operate in another market, separate from illegal consumers, that trade would bring online; 2) legal trade reduces stigma, which affects demand of law-abiding consumers; 3) laundering may bring illegal goods to legal markets when trade is allowed; 4) legal sales may affect illegal supply costs. This paper analyzes systematically which aspects of these complicated markets, separately or in combination, are important for determining whether limited legalized trade in otherwise illegal goods can be helpful for achieving policy goals like reducing poaching. Details: Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2001. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Discussion Paper 02-21: Accessed July 19, 2012 at: http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-02-21.pdf Year: 2001 Country: International URL: http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-02-21.pdf Shelf Number: 125691 Keywords: EconomicsEndangered SpeciesIllegal TradePoachingWildlife Crime |
Author: Marsh, Kevin Title: An Economic Analysis of Alternatives to Long-Term Detention Summary: The objective of this research was to determine the cost savings associated with the timely release of migrants pending removal who are currently detained for long periods only to be released back into the community. The UK Border Agency (UKBA) recommends that detention only be used for the shortest period necessary, pending resolution of immigration cases, i.e. removal or the determination of outstanding appeals (Home Office, 2011a). However, in practice, a significant number of individuals are held in detention for long periods before, ultimately, being released back into the community without resolution of their cases (Home Office, 2011b). Around 26,000 migrants enter detention per year. It is estimated that nearly 11 per cent of individuals entering detention spend greater than 3 months in detention, and 2 per cent spend greater than a year (Home Office, 2011b). Almost 40 per cent of detainees who spend more than 3 months in detention are eventually released into the community with their case still outstanding (Home Office, 2011b). The UKBA currently carries out a risk assessment of ex-offenders prior to the decision to detain (UKBA, 2011a). The scope of this risk assessment could be extended in order to identify those individuals who cannot be deported within a reasonable and lawful period of detention, and who will, therefore, eventually be released back into the community. Early identification and timely release of these individuals would save the cost of their protracted and fruitless detention. This more efficient use of detention space would mean that the same numbers of removals could be achieved using a reduced number of detention spaces. The analysis summarised in this report estimates that an improved risk assessment could result in cost savings of £377.4 million over a 5-year time period. This estimate comprises: £344.8 million in detention cost savings over 5 years. £37.5 million in avoided unlawful detention payments over 5 years. Minus £5.0 million in the extra cost of Section 4 support, including housing and living costs, for the additional time that migrants spend in the community. When analysing the savings over time, it is estimated that improved risk assessment could result in cost savings of £71.5 million, £81.2 million, £78.1 million, £74.9 million, and £71.6 million in each of the next 5 years, respectively. This amounts to average savings of £75.5 million per year, which could result in cost savings of £377.4 million over a 5 year time period. To contextualise these savings, it costs roughly £20 million per year to run a detention centre (UKBA, 2011b, Home Office, 2011b). Based on these costs, the analysis indicates that, by providing timely release for migrants, the UKBA could save the equivalent of the cost of running at least three detention centres over the next 5 years. A proportion of the expected savings could be reinvested in more intensive community-based support, which can be expected to generate increased rates of case resolution and voluntary return. For example, in Australia, migrants who would in the past have been detained are provided with case management support to resolve their immigration cases. The evidence from Australia suggests that case management is effective in increasing uptake of voluntary return. Currently in the UK, interventions are being piloted that replicate elements of Australian case management, although they have not been used as alternatives to detention. The analysis suggests that providing case management in the UK to all the migrants who would be released promptly in the above analysis would cost around £164.2 million, about 44 per cent of the savings made as a result of avoided detention. However, as voluntary returns are far cheaper than enforced removals, this could lead to further savings as well as increased overall numbers of returns. Details: London: Matrix Evidence, 2012. 26p, Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 26, 2012 at:http://detentionaction.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Matrix-Detention-Action-Economic-Analysis-0912.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://detentionaction.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Matrix-Detention-Action-Economic-Analysis-0912.pdf Shelf Number: 126465 Keywords: Costs of Criminal Justice (U.K.)EconomicsIllegal AliensImmigrant DetentionImmigrants |
Author: Police Executive Research Forum Title: Policing and the Economic Downturn: Striving for Efficiency Is the New Normal Summary: This report provides details about PERF’s 2012 survey of law enforcement agencies, which found that 41 percent of responding departments were planning budget cuts for their next fiscal year. This was an improvement over a PERF survey two years earlier, which found that 61 percent of those same agencies were planning budget cuts. The report also includes a number of case studies of law enforcement agencies that have developed innovative strategies for dealing with significant budget cuts, including the departments in Corpus Christi, TX; Camden, NJ; Lane County, OR; and Manchester, England. Details: Washington, DC: PERF, 2013. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Critical Issues in Policing Series: Accessed February 16, 2013 at: http://policeforum.org/library/critical-issues-in-policing-series/Economic_Downturn.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://policeforum.org/library/critical-issues-in-policing-series/Economic_Downturn.pdf Shelf Number: 127645 Keywords: Costs of Crime (U.S.)Costs of Criminal JusticeCriminal Justice ExpendituresEconomicsPolice AdministrationPolice AgenciesPolice Budgets |
Author: Dills, Angela K. Title: What Do Economists Know About Crime? Summary: In this paper we evaluate what economists have learned over the past 40 years about the determinants of crime. We base our evaluation on two kinds of evidence: an examination of aggregate data over long time periods and across countries, and a critical review of the literature. We argue that economists know little about the empirically relevant determinants of crime. Even hypotheses that find some support in U.S. data for recent decades are inconsistent with data over longer horizons or across countries. This conclusion applies both to policy variables like arrest rates or capital punishment and to less conventional factors such as abortion or gun laws. The hypothesis that drug prohibition generates violence, however, is generally consistent with the long times-series and cross-country facts. This analysis is also consistent with a broader perspective in which government policies that affect the nature and amount of dispute resolution play an important role in determining violence. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2008. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series: Working Paper 13759: Accessed March 22, 2013 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13759 Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13759 Shelf Number: 128072 Keywords: EconomicsEconomics of CrimeEconomists |
Author: Surtees, Rebecca Title: Re/integration of Trafficked Persons: Supporting Economic Empowerment Summary: Meaningful re/integration is a complex and costly undertaking. It requires a full and diverse package of services for the individual (and often also the family) to address the root causes of trafficking as well as the physical, mental and social impacts of their exploitation. Obstacles to sustainable recovery and re/integration for trafficking victims are myriad and often specific to the socio-cultural, economic or political situation in the country where re/integration takes place. Central to any assistance programme must be a victim and human rights centred philosophy with sustainable re/integration as the measure of success. This philosophy lies at the core of the Foundation’s strategy which aims not only to support different models and approaches to re/ integration in different countries but also to analyse the strengths of the various strategies as well as any inhibitors to full re/integration success. This paper is the third of a series that aim to shed light on good practices in the area of re/integration as well as important lessons learned. With its focus on monitoring and evaluation, it addresses one of the most challenging and under-considered aspects of re/integration work. Often perceived simply as paperwork that needs to be done in order to meet donors’ requirements, monitoring and evaluation is put forward here as a major tool to systematise re/integration work and to ensure that assistance is appropriate and effective. Details: Brussels: King Baudouin Foundation; Washington, DC: NEXUS Institute, 2012. 98p. Source: Internet Resource: Issue paper #4: Accessed May 2, 2013 at: http://www.nexusinstitute.net/publications/pdfs/Re-integration%20of%20trafficked%20persons,%20developing%20m&e%20mechanisms,%20KBF%20&%20NEXUS%202009.pdf Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://www.nexusinstitute.net/publications/pdfs/Re-integration%20of%20trafficked%20persons,%20developing%20m&e%20mechanisms,%20KBF%20&%20NEXUS%202009.pdf Shelf Number: 128604 Keywords: EconomicsHuman TraffickingReintegrationSocioeconomic StatusVictim Services |
Author: International Labour Organization Title: World Report on Child Labour: Economic vulnerability, social protection and the fight against child labour Summary: This new report is the first in a series to be published annually by the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour. It brings together research on child labour and social protection, identifying policies that are designed to achieve multiple social goals. It discusses the role of poverty and economic shocks in rendering households vulnerable to child labour and considers the impact on child labour of cash transfers, public employment programmes, social insurance and other social protection initiatives as they have been implemented around the world. The report distils a broad range of research in economic and social policy and should be of interest to those looking for ways to combat poverty in the present and reduce its burden on the next generation. Details: Geneva, SWIT: International Labour Organizations, 2013. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 13, 2013 at: http://www.ilo.org/washington/WCMS_178184/lang--en/index.htm Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.ilo.org/washington/WCMS_178184/lang--en/index.htm Shelf Number: 128718 Keywords: Child Labor (International)Child MaltreatmentChild ProtectionEconomicsPoverty |
Author: Strauss, Jack Title: Does Immigration, Particularly Increases in Latinos, Affect African American Wages, Unemployment and Incarceration Rates? Summary: This paper evaluates the impact of immigration on African American wages, unemployment, employment and incarceration rates using a relatively large cross-sectional data-set of 900 cities. An endemic problem potentially plaguing the cross-sectional metro approach to immigration has been endogeneity. Does increased immigration to a city lead to improved economic outcomes, or does a city's improving labor market attract immigrant inflows? The paper focuses on resolving the endogeneity concerns through a variety of controls, statistical methods and tests. Overall, results strongly support one-way causation from increased immigration including Latinos to higher African American wages and lower poverty. Rising immigration including from Latin America is not responsible for higher Black incarceration rates. Details: St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis University - Department of Economics, 2012. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 28, 2013 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2186978 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2186978 Shelf Number: 129195 Keywords: African-Americans (U.S.)EconomicsImmigrants and CrimeImmigration |
Author: Ayari, Ines Title: The Human Cost of Conservation in Republic of Congo Summary: This report is based on investigations in Republic of Congo by our local civil society partners, mainly within six forest communities living in or on the periphery of Conkouati-Douli National Park (CDNP) and Nouabale-Ndoki National Park (NNNP). Both of these protected areas have largely been shaped by the intervention of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The aim of our investigations was to understand the impact of the protected areas on those communities and the evolution of the relationships between them. If not conceived in a participatory manner, protected areas can dramatically affect communities' livelihoods and infringe upon their most basic rights; and may not even enhance biodiversity protection1. Although the Congolese legal framework offers some consideration of forest communities' land and resources rights, this report highlights outstanding issues which need be addressed in order to avoid further infringements of forest peoples' rights and foster an inclusive approach to conservation in the country. The main findings of the report are as follows: - Both protected areas have outdated management plans and inappropriate zoning, failing to include communities or to understand their land use dynamics. Local inhabitants generally aren't aware of the laws related to protected areas. When they are aware, there is confusion about which laws apply to them (such as in relation to the prohibition of species to be hunted) and about the geographical areas within which any laws may apply. Physical demarcation of park boundaries is neglected, which adds to the confusion. - Conservation-related restrictions prevent communities from accessing their traditional lands and resources, hampering villagers' subsistence activities - such as hunting and gathering - and affecting their social identities. Difficulties encountered by communities to readjust their livelihoods to the imposed restrictions are often overlooked or ignored by conservation programmes. Livelihoods are further compromised by wildlife-human conflict, which is amplified by conservation programmes and often disregarded by the authorities. No defensive measures can be taken by farmers - often women - who suffer material damage and sometimes face physical danger due to the presence of elephants in proximity to their fields. They have to carry the costs of protecting their cultivated lands and crops; and they often have no other choice than relocating or giving up on gathering and farming activities. - Economic displacement is a significant and detrimental issue, especially as it is almost never accompanied by adequate reparation of the damage and losses endured by local people. Despite some local employment related to anti-poaching monitoring and/or ecotourism and some housing improvements for certain villages (mostly in NNNP), the lack of economic benefits accruing to communities from conservation areas is stark. Existing benefit-sharing plans are often inefficient, leaky and non-transparent. Overall, flows of funding into the two national parks fail to compensate communities for the loss of livelihoods and rights. Such compensation could be done, for example, through the enhancement of basic infrastructure (schools, hospitals and decent transportation networks). The few attempts at 'economic alternative' measures have failed, particularly bushmeat substitution programmes, which neglect the cultural importance of wild game to forest communities and have not proven to decently and adequately provide dwellers with culturally-appropriate and affordable meat substitutes. - 'Consultation' processes - however poor - did take place in the initial phases of the two national parks' establishment, but were undertaken with only a limited number of concerned communities and often involved only a certain segment of each of them. Although inaugural steps in CDNP's creation seemed promisingly inclusive, the measures did not last. The intervention of WCS in the process undermined rather than enhanced a challenging but ongoing participatory process. - Indigenous hunter-gatherers appear to have suffered the biggest impacts related to conservation programmes taking place on their customary lands. They find themselves not only discriminated against by their Bantu neighbours and authorities, but they also carry the biggest burden of conservation-related restrictions and limitations. - Conservation actors tend to favour agreements with the private sector - including logging and mining interests - over constructive and strong partnerships with communities. This strategic approach to generate technical and financial support for protected areas' management and anti-poaching monitoring activities tends to increase communities' land tenure insecurity, as well as their sense of grievance towards park managers. - One of the most significant and detrimental consequences of imposed conservation models in the areas investigated are the tensions between communities and park management authorities - ultimately embodied by eco-guards - leading sometimes to serious conflicts. In some reported cases, these tensions have resulted in fatalities among villagers. Such conflicts are often the direct consequence of recurring abuses of power, intimidating and harassing behaviour (including physical violence), application of arbitrary sanctions, and unfair treatment of forest dwellers by eco-guards. This seriously problematic situation is exacerbated by a lack of access to justice for communities, as well as the impunity from which eco-guards often seem to benefit. The present report also stresses the current state of the Congolese legal framework, which is often incomplete and/or unenforced. Urgent measures need to be taken to ensure participatory management is developed and that it includes communities in projects affecting them. Legal loopholes need to be addressed, and the laws and rights of communities must be made clear and available to them. Based on the numerous observations and findings of this report, we propose a number of recommendations. These include the integration of indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights to lands, livelihoods, participation and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) into protected areas planning and management. In order for this to become a reality, a number of practical steps need to be taken: - The principles of participation and the obligation to satisfy local populations' needs within the frame of protected areas management does exist in Congolese law (Law No. 37-2008 on Wildlife and Protected Areas). It is crucial to build the conditions and define terms under which local communities and indigenous peoples are to be fully involved in the elaboration and implementation of protected area's management plans. It is of utmost importance that this is done through a participatory approach and by including obligations in terms of stakeholders' involvement in mapping and planning. In that sense, conservation organisations also need to make proactive efforts to ensure effective representation of local people in decision-making processes and strengthen partnerships with them. This entails that communities have access to adequate information about all current or future conservation measures, as well as information about park zoning and eco-guards' scope of intervention. - Ensuring the effectiveness and accessibility of mechanisms aimed at making individual and collective customary land recognition easier, as foreseen by law (Decrees No. 2006-255 and No. 2006-256 and Law No. 10 2004). - Ensuring the recognition of land rights prior to the creation of protected areas and the enactment of legislation to guarantee redress and compensation in cases of restricted rights to customary land and usage rights, such as for damage caused by wildlife to community assets, including in buffer zones. - The national land use plan - the elaboration of which is currently ongoing - needs to help prevent land allocations for different uses from overlapping; something that is all the more important with regards to customary lands. - Negotiations and agreements between conservation organisations and industrial interests need to include local communities from the outset; land use planning processes should be undertaken only with their full consent and in total transparency. - Communities' livelihoods are at stake and often threatened when protected areas are established without consideration for local populations' rights, traditions and socio-economic dynamics. While this issue is common to most protected areas across the country (including the two under investigation in this report), it could be addressed by taking several steps, such as: making benefitsharing schemes mandatory and effective, as per law; extending such schemes to peripheral zones and conservation areas under public-private partnerships; and designing culturally-appropriate development alternatives that promote and respect traditional knowledge and dynamics. 10 The Rainforest Foundation UK: The Human Cost of Conservation in Republic of Congo - December 2017 - The Congolese legal framework lacks a clear and adequate definition of usage rights in protected areas and their buffer zones, and this needs be addressed with full participation and consent of local and indigenous communities. These usage rights then need to be respected by external stakeholders. - The specific needs of indigenous communities have to be taken into consideration in conservation initiatives and measures. Indigenous communities' rights lag far behind despite the existence of Law No. 5-2011 on the Promotion and Protection of Rights of Indigenous Populations, which is considered as pioneering in the region but is not yet enforced. Measures need to be taken to ensure that indigenous peoples are consulted (via application of FPIC) prior to any project on their lands, including for conservation purposes, and that they are involved in land and resource management, according to the law. Conservation organisations and donors need to ensure indigenous people benefit equally from employment opportunities or alternative subsistence schemes and to consider them as equal stakeholders in discussions. - There is an urgent need for the country to respect its obligations with regards to international human rights standards, including in the context of nature conservation policies and programmes. This goes along with improving access to justice for communities and providing remedy for previous violations. Eco-guards should be held accountable for their repressive behaviour, and should be subject to effective sanctions. The government of Republic of Congo would gain from collaborating with national and local human rights organisations - including indigenous peoples' organisations - in the interest of both forest communities and conservation objectives. Conservation NGOs should proactively ensure that their projects do not undermine local rights, by integrating human rights in their plans, fostering participatory approaches, and giving more credit to (and promoting) local peoples' traditional knowledge and governance schemes. Special attention must be placed on indigenous peoples' special needs and situations, to avoid further discrimination and violations affecting them in particular. Institutional and private donors also have a role to play in a more proactive approach to this situation, such as through monitoring conservation projects' compliance with relevant laws and human rights standards. Donors can provide more specific support to both governments and conservation bodies for better application of human rights standards in conservation. They could also provide more support for community-based conservation programmes and make sure local communities benefit adequately from conservation initiatives. Above all, this requires a better understanding of customary land tenure, livelihoods and social dynamics Details: London: Rainforest Foundation UK, 2017. 108p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed January 31, 2018 at: http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/media.ashx/the-human-impact-of-conservation-republic-of-congo-2017-english.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Congo, Republic of the URL: http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/media.ashx/the-human-impact-of-conservation-republic-of-congo-2017-english.pdf Shelf Number: 148939 Keywords: EconomicsForestsWildlife ConservationWildlife Crime |