LEARNING BY CRIME AND LEARNING BY POLICING: WHO LEARNS MORE?

The model of learning by doing was adapted to hypothesize that police demonstrate learning by doing if apprehension costs diminish with time, while criminals demonstrate learning by doing if their productivity in illegal activity increases with experience and time. The findings show that criminals become more knowledgeable and skillful as they pursue their criminal careers, and therefore more crimes as executed over time. While police officers also learn from their experiences, it takes longer for the benefits of learning to accrue to the police than to accrue to criminals. Nevertheless, the community's financial benefit from police learning exceeds the monetary gain to criminals from their learning. 2 tables and 17 references