91福利

Reducing crime is a key policy objective, yet high rates of recidivism raise questions about the effectiveness of imprisonment as a deterrent. While prisons may discourage future offending through punishment, they may also function as 鈥渟chools of crime鈥� by facilitating the transmission of criminal knowledge, norms, and behaviors. This paper examines how prison networks shape inmates鈥� behavior using data from 490 inmates in two Spanish prisons. We elicit inmates鈥� networks and link them to experimentally measured outcomes capturing altruism, cooperation, aggression, cheating, and risk attitudes. A conceptual framework based on social norms predicts that peer effects influence behavior and vary with inmates鈥� centrality within the network. To identify peer effects, we combine network data with an instrumental variable approach and exploit random assignment to discussion groups that generate exogenous variation in social interactions. The results of IV estimation reveal strong and consistently positive peer effects across all behavioral measures, and this is supported by additional evidence from naturally occurring behaviors. Random assignment to discussion groups produces smaller peer effects, limited to altruism and cooperation. Contrary to our hypotheses, we find no evidence that inmates鈥� network centrality moderates peer effects. The findings contribute to the literature on crime, social networks, and correctional policy by providing novel evidence on the micro-foundations of peer influence during incarceration.