Using Laboratory Experiments to Study Law and Crime
CCSS-10-010
36 Pages Posted: 22 Jul 2010 Last revised: 19 Aug 2010
Date Written: July 20, 2010
Abstract
The 19th and 20th centuries produced breakthroughs in physics, chemistry, and the biological sciences. Laboratory research played an important role in the rapid advances made in these fields. Laboratory research can also contribute progress in the social sciences and, in particular, to law and criminology. To make this argument, we begin by discussing what laboratory experiments can and cannot do. We then identify three issues in the criminological and legal literature: why violence is higher in the southern United States than in the North, the relation between the severity of punishment and crime, and the expressive effects of law. We describe the relevant data from laboratory experiments and discuss how these data complement those gained through other methods.
Keywords: Laboratory experiments, experimental methods, law, crime
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Policeon Crime
-
The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports
By Lance Lochner and Enrico Moretti
-
The Effect of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates: Evidence from Prison Overcrowding Litigation