Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
While governments discuss arming their police, or retaining their armed status, the literature shows no evidence of the effect on violent crimes when the police are armed. Unlike this literature, our work shows that the effect of arming the police is a reduction in violent crimes (homicides and acts of aggression). With data taken from Brazilian municipalities for the period between 2002 and 2012, we estimate the effect that armed police have on violent crime using a quasi-natural experiment: a change in the law that regulates the use of firearms by the municipal police force based on population size. The mechanism that explains the reduction in violent crimes is police effort (incapacitation). We also observe that violent crimes do not increase in municipalities that are neighbors of municipalities in which the police are armed (a deterrence effect).