蝌蚪网 Journal:
Economic Policy
ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)
Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime
蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy
(pp. 1–18)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
Sparked by high-profile confrontations between police and citizens in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere, many commentators have criticized the excessive militarization of law enforcement. We investigate whether surplus military-grade equipment acquired by local police departments from the Pentagon has an effect on crime rates. We use temporal variations in US military expenditure and between-counties variation in the odds of receiving a positive amount of military aid to identify the causal effect of militarized policing on crime. We find that (i) military aid reduces street-level crime; (ii) the program is cost-effective; and (iii) there is evidence in favor of a deterrence mechanism.Citation
Bove, Vincenzo, and Evelina Gavrilova. 2017. "Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime." 蝌蚪网 Journal: Economic Policy 9 (3): 1–18. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150478Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H56 National Security and War
- H76 State and Local Government: Other Expenditure Categories
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law