The Impact of Fear on Police Behavior and Public Safety / Sungwoo Cho, Felipe Gonçalves, Emily Weisburst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cho, Sungwoo.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Gonçalves, Felipe.

Weisburst, Emily.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31392.

NBER working paper series no. w31392

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.

Summary:

We examine how changes in the salience of workplace risk affect police behavior and public safety. Specifically, we investigate cases of police officer deaths while on duty. Officers respond to a peer death by decreasing arrest activity for one to two months, consistent with heightened fear. Reductions are largest for low-level arrests and are more pronounced in smaller cities. Crime does not increase on average during this period, nor do we observe crime spikes in cities with larger or longer arrest declines. While shocks in fatality risk generate substantial enforcement responses, officer fear is unlikely to harm public safety.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2023.