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Differently rational

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TitleInfo
Title
Differently rational
SubTitle
essays on criminal behavior
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Williams
NamePart (type = given)
Geoffrey Fain
NamePart (type = date)
1969-
DisplayForm
Geoffrey Williams
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Sjostrom
NamePart (type = given)
Tomas
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Tomas Sjostrom
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
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chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
PIEHL
NamePart (type = given)
ANNE MORRISON
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ANNE MORRISON PIEHL
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Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Klein
NamePart (type = given)
Roger
DisplayForm
Roger Klein
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Lochner
NamePart (type = given)
Lance
DisplayForm
Lance Lochner
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2012
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2012-10
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
This dissertation uses a range of economic tools to analyze and understand criminal behavior, particularly theft. The first chapter outlines a number of key issues and stylized facts observed in criminal behavior, and provides an outline of the chapters that follow. The second chapter proposes a simple threshold model of theft, and develops a number of structural estimators based on this model. It then tests the model against data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, 1997 Cohort. The evidence suggests that the key determinant of theft behavior is the costs of theft to the thief, and in particular the thief's perception of future costs. There does not seem to be significant variation in the benefits of theft; that is, there is no sign that some individuals are more capable of theft than others. The data also shows that theft behavior is usually very short-lived, with the vast majority of thieves showing activity for less than one year in adolescence. The third chapter looks at the temporal pattern of criminal behavior (frequently termed a ``criminal career'' or ``trajectory'') in individuals' lives, up to the age of 25-30. It uses three different data sets, based on several methods of observation, and finds a number of similarities. In contrast to earlier work describing criminal careers, the data suggest that the two measures of age-specific inclination and individual-specific intensity are the key to describing patterns in criminal behavior. Specifically, there is significant evidence that an individual A committing a single crime at age 14 has more in common with individual B who commits only one crime, at age 24, than C who commits three crimes at age 14. The fourth chapter looks at the decision to steal in the context of a simple model of human capital accumulation, as a way to tease out the relative role of labor substitution and impatience in individuals' decision to steal. The data support the role of impatience a significant driver. First, individuals who report stealing show a wage and labor market participation pattern strongly consistent with a low discount rate. Second, individuals who report stealing show significant underinvestment in education, with lower enrollment rates and higher grade repetition than comparable non-thieves. Finally, individuals who report stealing show a larger number of employers, suggesting underinvestment in long-term career success.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Economics
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_4201
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
xvi, 154 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = vita)
Includes vita
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Geoffrey Fain Williams
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Criminal behavior
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Criminal behavior, Prediction of
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Differential association theory
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Theft
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000067066
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3QC028T
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

RightsDeclaration (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Williams
GivenName
Geoffrey
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2012-08-24 18:28:00
AssociatedEntity
Name
Geoffrey Williams
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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Technical

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