Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/108678 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8799
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
More policing reduces crime but little is known about the mechanism. Does policing deter crime by reducing its attractiveness, or because it leads to additional arrests of recurrent criminals? This paper provides evidence of a direct link between policing and arrests. During shift changes a peculiar redeployment of police patrols belonging to separate police forces disrupts policing and lowers the likelihood of clearing robberies with an arrest by 30 percent. There is no evidence that criminals exploit these dips in police performance. A back of the envelope calculation suggests that incapacitation explains 2/3 of the elasticity between robberies and policing.
Subjects: 
police
crime
incapacitation
deterrence
arrests
deployment
quasi-experiment
shift changes
JEL: 
K42
H00
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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