Love, Hate and Murder: Commitment Devices in Violent Relationships / Anna Aizer, Pedro Dal Bó.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aizer, Anna.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Dal Bó, Pedro.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w13492.

NBER working paper series no. w13492

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Love, Hate and Murder

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.

Summary:

Many violent relationships are characterized by a high degree of cyclicality: women who are the victims of domestic violence often leave and return multiple times. To explain this we develop a model of time inconsistent preferences in the context of domestic violence. This time inconsistency generates a demand for commitment. We present supporting evidence that women in violent relationships display time inconsistent preferences by examining their demand for commitment devices. We find that "no-drop" policies -- which compel the prosecutor to continue with prosecution even if the victim expresses a desire to drop the charges -- result in an increase in reporting. No-drop policies also result in a decrease in the number of men murdered by intimates suggesting that some women in violent relationships move away from an extreme type of commitment device when a less costly one is offered.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2007.