{"title":"强制性最低刑期及其对刑期分布的影响:加拿大的证据","authors":"Jeffrey Penney, Steven Lehrer, Emilia Galan","doi":"10.1111/caje.12696","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Whether judges and prosecutors should be given full discretionary power in sentencing or mandatory minimum sentences be imposed remains a fiercely debated topic. In this paper, we examine the impact of Canada's 2005 introduction of minimum sentences on sexual offences against children and child pornography on the distribution of sentence lengths using administrative data containing the universe of these offences that occurred between 2003 and 2007. We find that the average sentence length for affected crimes at times increased by substantially more than the newly imposed minimum, and effects of the policy appear even in the middle and upper portions of the sentencing distribution. These increases occur immediately following the policy change, signalling that judges and prosecutors quickly change their sentencing behaviour after the implementation of mandatory minimum sentences. These lengthier sentences have significant implications for the estimation of the fiscal costs of minimum sentencing policies.</p>","PeriodicalId":47941,"journal":{"name":"Canadian Journal of Economics-Revue Canadienne D Economique","volume":"57 1","pages":"55-77"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/caje.12696","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Mandatory minimum sentencing and its effect on sentencing distributions: Evidence from Canada\",\"authors\":\"Jeffrey Penney, Steven Lehrer, Emilia Galan\",\"doi\":\"10.1111/caje.12696\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p>Whether judges and prosecutors should be given full discretionary power in sentencing or mandatory minimum sentences be imposed remains a fiercely debated topic. In this paper, we examine the impact of Canada's 2005 introduction of minimum sentences on sexual offences against children and child pornography on the distribution of sentence lengths using administrative data containing the universe of these offences that occurred between 2003 and 2007. We find that the average sentence length for affected crimes at times increased by substantially more than the newly imposed minimum, and effects of the policy appear even in the middle and upper portions of the sentencing distribution. These increases occur immediately following the policy change, signalling that judges and prosecutors quickly change their sentencing behaviour after the implementation of mandatory minimum sentences. These lengthier sentences have significant implications for the estimation of the fiscal costs of minimum sentencing policies.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":47941,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Canadian Journal of Economics-Revue Canadienne D Economique\",\"volume\":\"57 1\",\"pages\":\"55-77\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":1.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-11-12\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/caje.12696\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Canadian Journal of Economics-Revue Canadienne D Economique\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"96\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/caje.12696\",\"RegionNum\":4,\"RegionCategory\":\"经济学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q3\",\"JCRName\":\"ECONOMICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Canadian Journal of Economics-Revue Canadienne D Economique","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/caje.12696","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
Mandatory minimum sentencing and its effect on sentencing distributions: Evidence from Canada
Whether judges and prosecutors should be given full discretionary power in sentencing or mandatory minimum sentences be imposed remains a fiercely debated topic. In this paper, we examine the impact of Canada's 2005 introduction of minimum sentences on sexual offences against children and child pornography on the distribution of sentence lengths using administrative data containing the universe of these offences that occurred between 2003 and 2007. We find that the average sentence length for affected crimes at times increased by substantially more than the newly imposed minimum, and effects of the policy appear even in the middle and upper portions of the sentencing distribution. These increases occur immediately following the policy change, signalling that judges and prosecutors quickly change their sentencing behaviour after the implementation of mandatory minimum sentences. These lengthier sentences have significant implications for the estimation of the fiscal costs of minimum sentencing policies.
期刊介绍:
The Canadian Journal of Economics (CJE) is the journal of the Canadian Economics Association (CEA) and is the primary academic economics journal based in Canada. The editors seek to maintain and enhance the position of the CJE as a major, internationally recognized journal and are very receptive to high-quality papers on any economics topic from any source. In addition, the editors recognize the Journal"s role as an important outlet for high-quality empirical papers about the Canadian economy and about Canadian policy issues.