Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach

Crime and Drugs: An Economic Approach¤

We present a model which ties together rational drug consumption, taxation, crime and other drug-related externalities. Drug control policy is addressed using an optimal tax framework. Consumption, possession and production of a drug may be prohibited, legalized or decriminalized. In all regimes illicit production of a drug may take place and drug-related crime occurs. We show that illicit drug...

Crime and punishment: the economic burden of impunity

Crime is an economically important activity, sometimes called the “industry of crime”. It may represent a mechanism of wealth distribution but also a social and economic charge because of the cost of the law enforcement system. Sometimes it may be less costly for the society to allow for some level of criminality. A drawback of such policy may lead to a high increase of criminal activity that m...

An Overview of Crime and Punishment

Juvenile Crime and Punishment:

Over the past twenty years juvenile violent crime rates have increased tremendously. In light of this disturbing trend, this paper examines whether variation in punishment levels has any impact on juvenile violent crime. To examine this relationship I first establish a behavioral model of juvenile crime, from which point I introduce an empirical model and use available data to estimate this mod...

Crime and Uncertain Punishment

Crime and Uncertain Punishment We consider agents in a country in an early stage of transition from a planned to a market economy. As the transition is in progress, the nature of the government’s policies are unknown to the agents. Property rights once held by the state have already been transferred to the agents, with each agent owning one firm. However, the agents are uncertain of the level o...