TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kuziemko,Ilyana
AU  - Levitt,Steven D.
TI  - An Empirical Analysis of Imprisoning Drug Offenders
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8489
PY  - 2001
Y2  - September 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8489
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8489.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ilyana Kuziemko
361 Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-6917
Fax: 609/258-5974
E-Mail: kuziemko@princeton.edu

Steven D. Levitt
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/834-1862
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: slevitt@midway.uchicago.edu
AB  - The number of prisoners incarcerated on drug-related offenses rose fifteen-fold between 1980 and 2000. This paper provides the first systematic empirical analysis of the implications of that dramatic shift in public policy. We show that the increase in drug prisoners led to reductions in expected time served for other crimes, especially for less serious offenses. Reductions in time served, however, increased other crimes by no more than a few percent. Moreover, incarcerating drug offenders is found to be almost as effective in reducing violent and property crime as locking up other types of offenders. We estimate that cocaine prices are 10-15 percent higher today as a consequence of increases in drug punishment since 1985. Based on previous estimates of the price elasticity of demand for cocaine, this implies a reduction in cocaine consumed of as much as 20 percent.
ER  -