McCary and Sanga on Youth Offenders and the Deterrence Effect of Prison

Justin McCrary and Sarath Sanga (University of California, Berkeley and Yale Law School) has posted Youth Offenders and the Deterrence Effect of Prison on SSRN.  Here is the abstract: 

In this paper, we present evidence from six data sets on the participation of youth in crime near the age of criminal majority. The evidence suggests smooth behavior through the transition to adulthood, despite substantial changes in punitiveness. This is consistent with small deterrence effects of long prisons sentences for youthful offenders.