סמינר באסטרטגיה

Itai Ater, TAU (joint work with Yehonatan Givati and Oren Rigbi

Abstract: 

What are the bene…ts and costs of the right to counsel? To address this question we exploit a legal reform in Israel that extended the right to publicly provided legal counsel to suspects in arrest proceedings. Using the staggered rollout of the reform in di¤erent regions of the country, we …find that publicly provided legal counsel was e¤ective, since it reduced arrest duration and the likelihood of arrests leading to charges being …led. We also …nd that publicly provided legal counsel a¤ected police activity, in particular by reducing the number of arrests made by the police. Lastly, we …nd that publicly provided legal counsel increased crime. These …findings indicate that the right to counsel improves suspects’ situation, but discourages the police from making arrests, which could result in higher crime.