Differential Victimization: Efficiency and Fairness Justifications for the Felony Murder Rule
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Nuno Garoupa
The felony murder rule would appear to be an anomaly in the common law. It represents one of the very few instances in criminal law where the element of intent is waived. Criticism of the rule is almost uniform among scholars and commentators, yet it endures in most jurisdictions throughout the United States. Typically, critics assert the rule’s longevity is the result of political forces that make it difficult to change laws that make criminal prosecutions easier. Others claim the rule fills some psychological need to mete out retribution when harm occurs to innocent parties. If a justification for the rule is offered, it generally focuses on the deterrence properties of the rule, however empirical research suggests the rule does little to deter felonies or felony murders. We offer a model in which the felony murder rule serves to deter crimes against relatively more vulnerable victims, who would otherwise be more attractive targets of crime in the absence of the rule. This model predicts only a relatively modest decrease in felonies, as perpetrators substitute away from relatively more vulnerable toward less vulnerable victims.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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- Paying the Price for Being Caught: The Economics of Manifest and Non-Manifest Theft in Roman Law
- Measuring Skill in Games with Random Payoffs: Evaluating Legality
- Timing of Crime, Learning and Sanction
- Controlling Avoidance: Ex Ante Regulation Versus Ex Post Punishment
- Damages for Breach of Contract, Impossibility of Performance and Legal Enforceability
- Social Norms, Self-Interest and Ambiguity of Legal Norms: An Experimental Analysis of the Rule vs. Standard Dilemma
- Frischmann's View of "Toward a Theory of Property Rights"
- Causation and Incentives to Choose Levels of Care and Activity Under the Negligence Rule
- A Positive Theory of Strict Liability
- Theory Meets Practice: Barriers to Entry in Merger Analysis
- Expert Testimony, Daubert, and the Determination of Damages
- Split-Estate Negotiations: The Case of Coal-Bed Methane
- Attorneys' Compensation in Litigation with Bilateral Delegation
- The Paradox of Expected Punishment: Legal and Economic Factors Determining Success and Failure in the Fight against Organized Crime
- The Biasing Effects of Memory Distortions on the Process of Legal Decision-Making
- Transaction Costs, Neighborhood Effects, and the Diffusion of the Uniform Sales Act, 1906-47
- A Note on the Social versus Private Value of Suits when Care is Bilateral
- The Hidden Bias of the Vienna Convention on the International Law of Treaties
- Differential Victimization: Efficiency and Fairness Justifications for the Felony Murder Rule
- Underpricing of IPOs and Legal Frameworks Around the World
- Damages or Reinstatement: Incentives and Remedies for Unjust Dismissal
- Jury Verdicts in Drunken Driving Cases
- The Market for Lawyers and Social Capital: Are Informal Rules a Substitute for Formal Ones?
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