Randi Hjalmarsson received her PhD in economics from Yale University in 2005. She was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, School of Public Policy from 2005 to 2009, a lecturer and Professor at Queen Mary University of London from 2010-2013. She has since settled in Sweden, and is currently Professor of Economics at the University of Gothenburg.
She has done extensive research on the economics of crime and the criminal justice system. Her current research emphasizes (i) the determinants of crime, including education, military service and the role of the family, neighborhood and peers), (ii) the impact of jury composition on trial verdicts and sentences and the dynamics of jury decision making, and (iii) racial biases in the criminal justice system. Previously, she has studied the effects of prison, the death penalty, and gun shows on crime. Her work has been published in leading academic journals including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and The Economic Journal. Her research has been funded, in part, by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Swedish Research Council's Distinguished Young Researchers Program.
Student Lecture, 20 April 2023
Biasis in Jury Decision Making
Minorities are over-represented amongst criminal justice populations around the world but under-represented amongst justice agent decision makers. Do biases in jury decisions play a role? I will review my work on the extent to which there are racial biases in jury decisions in the US and other types of biases in jury decision making, including those related to gender, political affiliation and platforms, and expected punishment.
Faculty Lecture, 21 April 2023
ADHD, Prison Healthcare, and Crime
Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is highly prevalent amongst criminal justice populations. Using Swedish prison registers with detailed in-prison healthcare data, we study the impact of in-prison diagnoses for ADHD on post-release ADHD-related healthcare and crime for both inmates and their family members. We distinguish between new, semi-new, and renewed ADHD diagnoses in prison and estimate dynamic difference-in-difference specifications. We find that new in-prison ADHD diagnoses significantly and persistently increase post-prison ADHD medication and diagnoses. There are also significant family spill-over effects: both children and siblings with no previous history of ADHD are more likely to be treated for ADHD after a newly diagnosed family member’s prison spell. Thus, prison can serve as an institution to bring high-risk, vulnerable populations into the public healthcare system – even those not directly treated in prison. Overall, these new ADHD diagnoses do not decrease post-prison conviction rates among former inmates and their family members. These results suggest that ADHD related care may not be as effective at lowering crime as many policy makers argue.
(preliminary, and incomplete)