Can Cost-Benefit Analysis Answer Criminal Justice Policy Questions, And If So, How?

Abstract

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is commonly used in criminal justice research, but the results are rarely embraced with great confidence. The CBA method that is routinely applied in crime research is not a well-developed empirical method but rather an intuitive extension of economic theory appended onto an impact evaluation. Small errors resulting from common problems in evaluation, such as small sample sizes and selection effects, are magnified in the CBA framework. In particular, rare events with large costs or benefits can obscure all other program effects. Even with careful attention to these issues, CBA conducted in conjunction with an impact evaluation will, as a rule, omit critical information. Because public safety is at the core of crime control, it is critical that CBA captures the effects of crime-control policy at the community level. Moving the unit of analysis from individual to community level effects may resolve these problems.

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