The utility of economic analysis of crime

Abstract

Economic theory has had a tradition of association with the study of crime and punishment that can be traced to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.l Modern interest in the subject, however, dates only from 1968, when an article written by Gary Becker 2 revived a perspective that promised to bring clarity and precision to the complexity and equivocation of contemporary criminology. Since then, an impressive literature has grown to test and modify his original formulation. Much of this has been concerned with empirical tests of economic predictions about crime and punishment, especially the effect of deterrents. 3 Other and fewer contributions have concentrated upon theoretical considerations and have refined, elaborated and sometimes criticised Becker's model. 4 It is a remarkable feature of such writing, however, that the economist's basic and general discussion of crime has rarely been challenged. Indeed, Isaac Ehrlich, an important proponent of the approach, was able to write in a recent review of its contribution to criminology that, 'hardly any criticism has been advanced against the formal economic model itself. '5 In this article, I will attempt to redress the balance by questioning the model's capacity to provide a generally useful aid to understanding crime and responses to punishment. My aim will be to demonstrate that the model does not fully justify the faith that its adherents have in it, that it has not produced any significant contribution to criminological theory and that it provides an inadequate basis for penal policy.