Violence Against Women, Social Learning, and Deterrence

21 Pages Posted: 4 Oct 2004

See all articles by Hugo M. Mialon

Hugo M. Mialon

Emory University - Department of Economics

Sue H. Mialon

Emory University

Date Written: September 30, 2004

Abstract

We develop a simple model of sexual and domestic violence. By assumption, the potential victim's threat to report if she is victimized is not credible, which implies that the only sequential equilibrium involves violence. However, a realistic social learning process converges to a non-sequential equilibrium without violence from all nearby states if the expected punishment for offenders whose victims report to the police is sufficiently high. A policy to increase the sentences for sexual and domestic violence convictions could therefore substantially reduce such violence in the long run, even if it is powerless to make women's threats to report credible.

Keywords: Violence, Learning, Deterrence

JEL Classification: K42

Suggested Citation

Mialon, Hugo M. and Mialon, Sue H., Violence Against Women, Social Learning, and Deterrence (September 30, 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=598888 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.598888

Hugo M. Mialon (Contact Author)

Emory University - Department of Economics ( email )

1602 Fishburne Drive
Atlanta, GA 30322
United States

Sue H. Mialon

Emory University ( email )

Department of Economics
1602 Fishburne Dr.
Atlanta, GA 30322
United States
404-712-8169 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.suemialon.net

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
197
Abstract Views
1,568
Rank
278,522
PlumX Metrics