University of Virginia Legal Working Paper Series
University of Virginia John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper Series
Public Preferences for Rehabilitation versus Incarceration of Juvenile Offenders: Evidence from a Contingent Valuation Survey
Abstract
Accurately gauging the public’s support for alternative responses to juvenile offending is important, because policymakers often justify expenditures for punitive juvenile justice reforms on the basis of popular demand for tougher policies. In this study, we assess public support for both punitively and non-punitively oriented juvenile justice policies by measuring respondents’ willingness to pay for various policy proposals. We employ a methodology known as ‘contingent valuation,’ (CV) that permits the comparison of respondents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for competing policy alternatives. Specifically, we compare CV-based estimates for the public’s WTP for two distinctively different responses to serious juvenile crime: incarceration and rehabilitation. An additional focus of our analysis is an examination of the public’s WTP for an early childhood prevention program. The analysis indicates that the public is at least as willing to pay for rehabilitation as punishment for juvenile offenders and that WTP for early childhood prevention is also substantial. Implications and future research directions are outlined.
Subject Area
Juveniles, Law and Economics
Recommended Citation
Daniel S. Nagin, Alex R. Piquero, Elizabeth S. Scott, and Laurence Steinberg,
"Public Preferences for Rehabilitation versus Incarceration of Juvenile Offenders: Evidence from a Contingent Valuation Survey"
(February 2006).
University of Virginia Legal Working Paper Series.
University of Virginia John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper Series.
Working Paper 28.
http://law.bepress.com/uvalwps/olin/art28
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