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On the Evolutionary Dynamics of Crime

Author

Listed:
  • Ross Cressman
  • Jean-Francois Wen
  • William Morrison

Abstract

In this paper, the authors examine the economics of crime deterrence from an evolutionary perspective. A bimatrix game is used to model the interaction between populations of property owners and (potential) criminals, given exogenous levels of public policing and criminal sanctions. A crucial element in the authors' analysis is the private effort property owners exert to prevent theft. The dynamics show that the crime rate is cyclical over time and the average crime rate over the cycle is invariant to the magnitude of criminal sanctions. Furthermore, increased public policing raises the average crime rate until a threshold level of policing is reached where the crime rate falls.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross Cressman & Jean-Francois Wen & William Morrison, 1998. "On the Evolutionary Dynamics of Crime," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 31(5), pages 1101-1117, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:cje:issued:v:31:y:1998:i:5:p:1101-1117
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Eaton, B.Curtis & Wen, Jean-François, 2008. "Myopic deterrence policies and the instability of equilibria," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(3-4), pages 609-624, March.
    2. Barreira da Silva Rocha, André, 2013. "Evolutionary dynamics of nationalism and migration," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(15), pages 3183-3197.
    3. Angelo Antoci & Alessandro Fiori Maccioni & Pier Luigi Sacco & Mauro Sodini, 2017. "Self-protection, Psychological Externalities, and the Social Dynamics of Fear," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 61(2), pages 349-371, February.
    4. A. Antoci & S. Borghesi & G. Iannucci, 2016. "Green licenses and environmental corruption: a random matching model," Working Paper CRENoS 201615, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    5. André Barreira da Silva Rocha, 2013. "An Evolutionary Game for the Issues of Social Investment, Environmental Compliance and Consumer Boycott," Discussion Papers in Economics 13/17, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    6. Rocha, André Barreira da Silva & Laruelle, Annick & Zuazo Garín, Peio, 2011. "Replicator Dynamics and Evolutionary Stable Strategies in Heterogeneous Games," IKERLANAK info:eu-repo/grantAgreeme, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    7. Ozan Candogan & Ishai Menache & Asuman Ozdaglar & Pablo A. Parrilo, 2011. "Flows and Decompositions of Games: Harmonic and Potential Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 36(3), pages 474-503, August.
    8. Güth Werner & Kliemt Hartmut & Peleg Bezalel, 2000. "Co-evolution of Preferences and Information in Simple Games of Trust," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 83-110, February.
    9. Angelo Antoci & Simone Borghesi & Gianluca Iannucci, 2021. "(Dis)honest bureaucrats and (non)compliant firms in an evolutionary game," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(2), pages 321-344, May.
    10. Shahi, Chander & Kant, Shashi, 2007. "An evolutionary game-theoretic approach to the strategies of community members under Joint Forest Management regime," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(7), pages 763-775, April.
    11. Gianfranco Gambarelli & Daniele Gervasio & Francesca Maggioni & Daniel Faccini, 2022. "A Stackelberg game for the Italian tax evasion problem," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 295-307, June.
    12. Luciano Andreozzi, 2008. "Inspection games with long-run inspectors," Department of Economics Working Papers 0821, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    13. GholamReza Keshavarz Haddad & Hamed Markazi Moghadam, 2011. "The socioeconomic and demographic determinants of crime in Iran (a regional panel study)," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 99-114, August.
    14. da Silva Rocha, Andre Barreira, 2010. "An Evolutionary Game Approach to the Issues of Migration, Nationalism, Assimilation and Enclaves," Economics Discussion Papers 8945, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    15. Wilson, Dennis P., 2005. "Additional law enforcement as a deterrent to criminal behavior: empirical evidence from the National Hockey League," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 319-330, May.
    16. Arce, Daniel G., 2010. "Corporate virtue: Treatment of whistle blowers and the punishment of violators," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 363-371, September.
    17. da Silva Rocha, André Barreira & Salomão, Gabriel Meyer, 2019. "Environmental policy regulation and corporate compliance in evolutionary game models with well-mixed and structured populations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(2), pages 486-501.
    18. Lipatov, Vilen, 2008. "Social Interaction in Tax Evasion," MPRA Paper 8829, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Lipatov, Vilen, 2003. "Evolution of Tax Evasion," MPRA Paper 966, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Dec 2005.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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