In the city of Swiftsure, there is only one crime, armed robbery. The city recently decided to double the probability of imprisonment from 10 percent (10 percent of armed robberies result in a prison sentence) to 20 percent. Because the city has a fixed prison capacity, it also cut the average prison sentence in half, from 3 years to 1.5 years.

a. Would you expect these changes in the city's crime policy to increase, decrease, or not affect the city's crime rate? Explain why.

b. Would you expect these changes to increase, decrease, or not affect the total cost of crime (the sum of victim and prevention costs)?