Jennifer Doleac

Texas A&M University Website

Jennifer Doleac is Associate Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University, Director of the Justice Tech Lab, and host of the Probable Causation podcast. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. Professor Doleac is the Co-Director of the Criminal Justice Expert Panel.

Voting History

Marijuana reform

Pardoning federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana will have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.

Vote Confidence
Neutral/No Opinion 9
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 8
Comments

There are very few such convictions, so this is mostly a symbolic move. But the costs should be minimal.

Pardoning state convictions for simple possession of marijuana will have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.

Vote Confidence
Agree 4
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 8
Comments

This won't reduce incarceration rates much, and it's currently unclear whether expunging/sealing such records has any benefit. (Initial evidence suggests there is little/no benefit in terms of employment, especially to people with less-recent convictions. Preventing the conviction in the first place would be more helpful.) But there should also be very little cost to this. Maybe there are some benefits that outweigh minimal costs?

Moving marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a less-restrictive schedule or legalizing it at the federal level would have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.

Vote Confidence
Agree 5
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 8
Comments

Prosecuting people for non-violent misdemeanors increases recidivism (see Agan et al, 2022), but that doesn't mean legalizing those behaviors would have the same benefits (perhaps the arrest & court appearance are sufficient punishment). I also worry that many simple possession arrests are an effort to get a particular person off the street; legalizing marijuana could simply mean police officers arrest them for something else (disorderly conduct, trespassing). This would reduce benefits.

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