Punishment should fit the crime: an assessment of the French reform of minimum mandatory penalties

Bruno Deffains (1) , Roberto Galbiati (2) , Sébastien Rouillon (3)

1 EconomiX
2 UPN - Université Paris Nanterre
3 GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée

We study the effects of minimum mandatory sentences when judges are at least minimally averse to error and/or follow some "penalty should fit the crime" heuristic. We apply our analysis to the 2007 reform of the French Penal Code. We show that the introduction of minimum mandatory sentences in this context may backfire inducing more crime in the long run. Judges may prefer to acquit a criminal than convicting him to a sentence reputed too high.

Keywords: Law-and-economics; Crime; Punishment; Judge Behavior

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Law; Humanities and Social Sciences; Sociology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Political science

Bruno Deffains, Roberto Galbiati, Sébastien Rouillon. Punishment should fit the crime: an assessment of the French reform of minimum mandatory penalties. Portuguese Economic Journal, 2009, 8 (3), pp.161 - 175. ⟨10.1007/s10258-009-0050-z⟩. ⟨hal-03473738⟩