“When you give [police] the power of civil asset forfeiture,
they’ve got to choose between themselves or the public,” says
experimental
economist Bart Wilson. “Why do we want to put them in that
position?”
Wilson, a professor of economics at Chapman University, and his
co-author Michael Preciado designed a study to
reveal how the incentives set forth under civil forfeiture affect
human behavior. In the study, one undergraduate student plays the
role of law enforcement in a computer game, and three others play
the roles of the public. Subjects played for real money, and Wilson
says the results were overwhelming.
“It’s not a few people just abusing it. This is the modal
tendency: to abuse,” says Wilson, who points out that subjects are
more likely than not to help others in games when there’s no
financial cost of doing so. “For me, that’s pretty strong evidence
that it’s the rules that are creating the incentives for them to
police for profit.”
To see a fuller explanation of the study’s methodology and its
results, watch the video above. Click the link below for full text,
associated links, and downloadable versions.
Approximately 8 minutes. Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera
by Alex Manning.
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