10.17889/E111872V1
Ater, Itai
Rigbi, Oren
Givati, Yehonatan
Replication data for: The Economics of Rights: Does the Right to Counsel Increase Crime?
ICPSR Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
2017
10.1257/pol.20160027
10.1257/pol.20160027
1
We examine the broad consequences of the right to counsel by exploiting a legal reform in Israel that extended the right to publicly provided legal counsel to suspects in arrest proceedings. Using the staggered regional rollout of the reform, we find that the reform reduced arrest duration and the likelihood of arrestees being charged. We also find that the reform reduced the number of arrests made by the police. Lastly, we find that the reform increased crime. These findings indicate that the right to counsel improves suspects' situation, but discourages the police from making arrests, which results in higher crime.