Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Bad Samaritan Laws (BSLs) issue punishment, either in the form of a monetary fine or misdemeanor offense, on citizens who fail to report a crime that they know has occurred or might be occurring. This study empirically evaluates the effectiveness of these laws in Ohio and Texas at improving outcomes for reporting incidents of rape. This study fails to find an effect on reporting in the overall population, but conditional on a report being made, arrest rates increase after the enactment of BSLs. A potential mechanism is that BSLs increase the probability of a witness being found, which facilitates arrests without jeopardizing the due process of law.