Privately Produced General Deterrence

Abstract

In this study, we use county data on private security establishments and employment for 1977-92 to test two hypotheses. First, we test whether private security deters crime. Second, we test whether John Lott and David Mustard's estimates of the impact of shall-issue laws on crime are biased because of a lack of controls for private security. We find little evidence that private security reduces the crime rates for assault or larceny. Some estimates suggest murder, robbery, and/or auto theft may be deterred by private security, although these results are not robust. Of all the index crime categories, only rape is estimated to have a consistent negative relationship with private security. In addition, we find little evidence that the Lott and Mustard results are biased because of a lack of controls for the private security measures employed in this study.

Predation, Protection, and Productivity: A Firm-Level Perspective

“…The role of private spending in driving up the welfare costs is an old theme in the crime literature starting with Tullock (1967) and Becker (1968). 6 Benson and Mast (2001), for example, discuss how spending on protection can be quantified in assessing the costs of crime. Besley, Fetzer, and Mueller (2015) exploit shipping prices in the spot market for bulk shipping to calculate the welfare cost of Somali piracy.…”

Labor Markets and Crime: New Evidence on an Old Puzzle

“…For example, Lott and Mustard (1997) and Ayres and Levitt (1998) showed that self-protection lowers crime by carrying concealed weapons and purchasing LoJack, respectively. Benson and Mast (2001) examine the role of privately produced deterrence more broadly. These multiple effects that work in opposite directions help explain why empirical studies show mixed results in different studies.…”

Public Safety through Private Action: An Economic Assessment of BIDS

“…2 2 Displacement may explain the weak findings observed by Benson and Mast (2001). They analysed a 16‐year panel on US counties to assess the effect of private security on crime rates.…”