ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ethical foundations of the neoclassical model of rational choice, and explains how they are ill-suited to the study of criminal behavior. It then briefly explores Kant's moral system and its relationship to social economics, and outlines a model in which the chapter incorporates Kantian duties into the economic decision-making framework. The chapter elaborates this model to apply specifically to criminal behavior, comparing it to the standard neoclassical economics of crime (NEC) approach. It focuses that the NEC assumes that the laws only affect an individual's choices through the additional cost stemming from the threatened sanction. While not denying the importance of this effect, the chapter approach also includes the duty implied by the law itself. Finally, it explains how this new approach to modeling individual criminal behavior will impact the other side of NEC, the model of optimal enforcement, focusing on the structure of legal prohibitions and sanctions.
