Descripción del proyecto
Investigar la relación entre delincuencia y desigualdad económica
La desigualdad de oportunidades (en el mercado laboral, la atención sanitaria y la exposición a la policía) influye en la posibilidad de interactuar con el sistema judicial. A su vez, tener antecedentes penales o una pena de prisión puede agravar dichas desigualdades, tanto para los delincuentes como para sus familias. El equipo del proyecto POLICE-PRISONS-FIRMS, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, estudiará los prejuicios en las decisiones policiales y el impacto de la formación sobre prejuicios implícitos en el contexto de Estados Unidos y el Reino Unido. En el contexto sueco, estudiará (i) los efectos indirectos no deseados de las reformas que ampliaron las penas de prisión e introdujeron la vigilancia electrónica, (ii) los efectos del tratamiento sanitario en prisión sobre la salud y el comportamiento delictivo del delincuente, y (iii) las oportunidades de empleo para las personas con antecedentes penales.
Objetivo
Economic inequality across the population implies vastly unequal opportunities in many dimensions that can impact an individual’s chance of entering the justice system. One such channel via which this can occur – even holding criminal behavior constant – is unequal treatment by agents of the justice system (e.g. police). The consequences of such partiality is not trivial: once in the system, it is hard to get out. And to the extent that convictions and sanctions result in worse outcomes (e.g. employment) for offenders and/or family members, the cycle of crime and economic inequality will perpetuate for current and future generations. This program pushes forward the evidence base on three channels (police, prisons, firms) through which this cycle can be broken.
Part 1 aims to measure and study the adoption of implicit bias training programs by police agencies. Despite such programs being a go-to response of agencies accused of bias, there is almost no knowledge on how/whether they impact officer behavior.
Part 2 addresses the knowledge gap on ‘what (specifically) works’ in prison. First, we will study the unintended impacts of two Swedish sanction reforms onto untreated populations. (i) Does more time in prison have spill-over effects for family members? (ii) Did the introduction of electronic monitoring impact the conditions and outcomes of ineligible offenders left behind in prison? Second, we will open the black-box of prison healthcare to study how in-prison treatment (diagnoses, medication, vaccines, programs) impacts post-release health, medication adherence, and crime.
Part 3 aims to further our understanding of the employment opportunities – or lack thereof – for workers with criminal records (WCR). We will use Swedish registers to study (i) the extent to which WCR are sorted across firms and the determinants of a firm’s demand for WCR, (ii) selection of WCR into self-employment, and (iii) how an offender’s social networks impact firm hiring decisions.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitución de acogida
405 30 Goeteborg
Suecia