Bernard Harcourt (U of Chicago) is guest-blogging at the Volokh Conspiracy, and is summarizing some fascinating work on “aggregated institutionalization” and homicide rates. (Here’s an earlier guest-post on mental-hospitalization and incarceration rates in Europe.) Bottom line: “Using state-level panel data spanning the entire period from 1934 to 2001, including all 50 states, and controlling for economic, demographic, and criminal justice variables, I again found a large, robust, and statistically significant relationship between aggregated institutionalization and homicide rates. ” Check it out.
Posted by Rick Garnett on May 1, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Comments
Who’s criticizing him?
Posted by: Patrick S. O’Donnell | May 2, 2007 5:17:50 PM
I don’t think that we should criticize Harcourt for pointing out the correlations between aggregated institutionalization and homicide rates. While I haven’t been following his postings on the VC, his 2006 article in the Texas Law Review (which I blogged about a few weeks ago here on PrawfsBlawg) was framed as a response to *other* authors who had made claims about the relationship between incaceration rates and crime rates over time.
Posted by: cbh | May 2, 2007 11:21:46 AM
I prefer this as the bottom line: “A study finding correlations is not enough to start drawing policy conclusions.”
Posted by: Patrick S. O’Donnell | May 1, 2007 2:22:14 PM