Abstract
This paper aims to discuss some issues of morality and sense of justice present in the Economic Theory of Crime with the lens of the methodological positive and normative dichotomy in Economics. There has already been done some works describing the differences in positive and normative Law and Economics, but we believe that the Economics of Crime, considered as a topic inside Law and Economics, has some specific open and important debates that could be enlightened by the discussion of positive and normative economics. Through a literature review of critics of Economic Theory of Crime, we pointed out the main criticized topics and then use the positive-normative dichotomy in Law and Economics to analyze how those critics can be interpreted on both perspectives and how both perspectives are able (or not) to provide a complete and realistic interpretation of criminal behavior and law enforcement.
Highlights
The publication of the book “The Future of Law and Economics” by Calabresi (2016) brought light to some important debates that have been not receiving much attention by scholars of Law and Economics, namely the importance of values and norms when analyzing laws with economic tools.Economic Theory of Crime, as a branch of the Law and Economics movement, has been neglecting those subjects since Gary Becker started this research agenda when published “Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach” in 1968
This paper aims to discuss some issues of morality and sense of justice present in the Economic Theory of Crime with the lens of the methodological positive and normative dichotomy in Economics
Economic Theory of Crime has treated any form of violation i.e., without taking into account the existence of violations that belong to the civil sphere and others that belong to the criminal sphere
Summary
The publication of the book “The Future of Law and Economics” by Calabresi (2016) brought light to some important debates that have been not receiving much attention by scholars of Law and Economics, namely the importance of values and norms when analyzing laws (or legal problems) with economic tools. Law and Economics has a particular approach to the goal of the justice system, which is allocative efficiency (and for some cases utility maximization) All three of these topics, which make up the core of what is discussed throughout this paper, raise questions that require debates on both morality and values, if they are to be understood in their entirety. We present the three main topics that are going to be discussed in the paper concerning morality and justice, which are: 1) does the benefits of the criminal activity must be considered positively in the calculus of the social welfare; 2) how is understood the use of punishment inside Economic Theory of Crime; and 3) what is the objective of the Justice System in the same theory? It is not quiet obvious, as some economists sees it, that the purpose of Criminal Justice System should be achieving efficiency
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