Sentence Length and Recidivism: Court Rulings based on BAC

Joakim Jansson (), Per Petterson-Lidbom (), Mikael Priks () and Björn Tyrefors
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Joakim Jansson: Department of Economics and Statistics, Linnaeus University, Postal: and Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden, https://www.ifn.se/en/researchers/affiliated-researchers/joakim-jansson/
Per Petterson-Lidbom: Department of Economics, Stockholm University, Postal: and Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden, https://www.ifn.se/en/researchers/affiliated-researchers/per-pettersson-lidbom/
Mikael Priks: Department of Economics, Stockholm University

No 1536, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: We study the effect of prison sentences on recidivism using a unique feature of sentencing for drunk driving in the Swedish court system. Below the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 1.0‰, individuals are never sentenced to prison and above 1.0‰, the average number of days sentenced to prison is essentially linearly increasing with the BAC level. We find that being sentenced to prison for one month reduces reoffending in the next five years by approximately 80 percent.

Keywords: Sentence length; Recidivism; DUI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 K42 R41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2025-09-18
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1536

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