Behavioral Economics Study on Criminal Offenses by Ethnic Minorities Floating Population in Cities--with Chengdu City as Instance

Abstract

First, this paper random select the crime data of some comprehensive information application platform in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and gives a statistical description of criminal phenomena with the constructed crime index, gender index, crime rate,and educational level. The results indicate that the crime rate of ethnic minorities in Chengdu is higher than Han, and the criminals of ethnic minorities are almost floating population. And then the crime phenomena are analyzed from multiple perspectives through typical models, including rational criminal decision-making model and criminal selection modal under risk environment and the analytical approaches in behavioral economics, such as social culture, incentive, criminal market, cost-benefit and correlation analysis. Finally, the author brings forth conclusions as follows: with low education level, unsteady income, insufficient property and forced by living, the urban minorities floating population have a strong demand for committing crimes. They believe that crimes are likely committed with impunity and thus deem the cost of crime offenses low. Also, unhealthy “sub-culture” environment and unfamiliar society they live in make the shame and social reputation, that most likely refrain from offenses, lose effectiveness. All those factors mentioned probably trigger criminal offenses and high crime rate in the city where they live. At the end of this paper, the correlation analysis between poverty, education level and crime rate is used to verify the conclusion of the study, and base on the conclusion the prevention and control recommendations on criminal offenses by the urban minorities floating population are listed.