ABSTRACT

This chapter introduces some of the fundamental concepts in the economics of crime and punishment. Among these concepts are: the resource costs of fighting crime; the rational criminal; the deterrent effect of crime policy; the certainty of punishment, made up of the probability of apprehension and the probability of conviction; the severity of punishment, made up of the size and nature of the sanction; the expected punishment, made up of both the certainty and severity of punishment; efficient crime, including the benefit of crime to the criminal; and, the meaning of social welfare as it applies to public policy objectives.