Jason Brennan on Incentives and Criminal Justice: Deep Dive
April 10, 2022
The American criminal justice system has a lot of problems: Violent cops, high rates of imprisonment, and harsh sentences. Understanding the financial incentives in the system is necessary to correctly identify the causes of these problems and focus the solutions.
The American criminal justice system has a lot of problems: Violent cops, high rates of imprisonment, and harsh sentences. Understanding the financial incentives in the system is necessary to correctly identify the causes of these problems and focus the solutions.
Jason Brennan is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Term Professor and the Director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics. He specializes in issues at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and economics. He is the author of ten books, mostly recently publishing Injustice for All: How Financial Incentives Created America's Dysfunctional Criminal Justice System and How to Fix It coauthored with Chris Surprenant (@CWSurprenant), a professor of ethics, strategy, and public policy at the University of New Orleans. In their book, Brennan and Surprenant argues that criminal justice reform that works will require recognizing existing profit incentives and realigning them to produce better outcomes.
You'll also find out, as always, the one thing Brennan thinks young people today should know and something he's changed his mind about.
Listen to this episode
The Great Antidote: Jason Brennan on Incentives and Criminal Justice | Adam Smith Works
You'll also find out, as always, the one thing Brennan thinks young people today should know and something he's changed his mind about.
Listen to this episode
The Great Antidote: Jason Brennan on Incentives and Criminal Justice | Adam Smith Works
The guest: Jason Brennan
- Georgetown University profile, Wikipedia profile
- Blogging at 200-Proof Liberals (Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/200proofliberals/; Twitter: @200ProofLibs)
- Video discussing Injustice for All on C-SPAN (hosted by The Cato Institute)
Related AdamSmithWorks content
- The Liberty Producing Institutions: A Modern Lawyer and Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence, Part 3, by Clark Neily
- Part I: "Of Justice" from Adam Smith's Lectures on Jurisprudence
Related Liberty Fund content
- “Incentives Matter,” by Russ Roberts at Econlib
- "Crime," by David Friedman at Econlib
- Jennifer Doleac on Crime on EconTalk
- "The Continuum Between Liberalism and Anarchism," by Pierre Lemieux at EconLib
People, places and things mentioned
- Arnold Kling, relevant book is The Three Languages of Politics; extended description at Libertarianism.org
- John Pfaff, relevant book is Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration-and How to Achieve Real Reform
- US Civil Right Commissions, Virginia
- Harvey Silvergate's book Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
- TSA failures: TSA fails most tests in latest undercover operation at US airports - ABC News (go.com); TSA | Office of Inspector General (dhs.gov)
- Washington Monument strategy - Political Dictionary
- Anarchism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Resources compiled by Christy Lynn