Graduation Year

2018

Date of Submission

12-2017

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Eric Helland

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2018 Julia Seacat

Abstract

A number of literature have analyzed the effect of harsh punitive laws on crime rates in the United States. This study aims to investigate the effect of specific U.S. federal drug policies on the rates of recidivism for nonviolent drug crimes during the years 1997 through 2009. I use data from a probation survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that is specifically comprised of America’s youth criminal population. I measure recidivism of nonviolent drug crime through re-arrest due to selling drugs using a few different metrics including a multivariate regression model using economic and social indicators as the explanatory variables and a discrete time hazard model. I find that U.S. federal drug policy increases the probability of recidivism during these years due to an upward trend of recidivism rates.

Download

This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

Share

COinS