Learning by offending: How do criminals learn about criminal law?

This paper investigates how criminals learn about criminal law. It uses the case of a natural experiment in which sentences were drastically increased for a specific type of recidivism in France. In the short run, media coverage of the reform did not seem to affect criminal behavior. However, people who had first-hand experience of the law later committed significantly fewer targeted crimes but the same number of nontargeted crimes. This pattern is consistent with a behavioral reaction based on a better understanding of the reform. This learning effect does not spread easily. While codefendants also learned, other criminal peers and defendants in the courtroom at the same time, but for a different case, did not.