TY  - JOUR
CY  - Chicago
ID  - publications25689
UR  - http://tse-fr.eu/pub/32043
IS  - 5
A1  - Ouss, Aurélie
A1  - Philippe, Arnaud
N2  - We explore how television broadcasting of unrelated criminal justice events affects sentencing. Exploiting as-good-as-random variation in news content before a verdict, we find that sentences are 3 months longer when the verdict is reached after coverage of crime. Sentence increase with media exposure to crime, not crime itself, and the effect tapers off quickly. Our results suggest that professional experience and expertise mitigates the effect of irrelevant external information. This paper highlights the influence of noise in the news cycle: media can temporarily influence decisions by changing what is top-of-the-mind, rather than signaling deeper changes in offending or societal concerns.
VL  - 126
TI  - No Hatred or Malice, Fear or Affection": Media and Sentencing
AV  - public
EP  - 2178
Y1  - 2018/10//
PB  - University of Chicago Press
JF  - Journal of Political Economy
KW  - courts
KW  - media
KW  - sentencing
KW  - crime
KW  - judicial decision
KW  - cognitive bias
SN  - 0022-3808
SP  - 2134
ER  -