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The Socioeconomic Determinants of Crime. A Review of the Literature

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Author Info
Paolo Buonanno () (Department of Economics, University of Milan-Bicocca)

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Abstract

Starting from Becker’s seminal paper we review the first contributions to the economics of crime, stressing how with the first model of criminal choice, due to Becker, the way of conceiving criminal behaviours has drastically changed. In fact, criminal choice ceases to be viewed as determined by mental illness or bad attitudes, but it is considered on the basis of a maximization problem in which agents have to compare costs and benefits of legal and illegal activities taking in account the probability of being arrested and punished and the expected returns from crime. Criminal decision is an economic choice by rational agents. In the second part of the survey, in which we focus our attention on empirical works, we present the main recent contributions to the economics of crime; in particular we outline the determinants of criminal behaviours and explore the relationships existing between crime and socioeconomic variables emerging from the literature. In fact, the economics of crime interacts with different and heterogeneous fields (i.e. sociology, criminology, psychiatry and geography). It is closely related to poverty, social exclusion, wage and income inequality, cultural and family background, level of education and other economic and social factors that may affect individual’s propensity to commit crimes such as cultural characteristics, age and sex.

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File URL: http://dipeco.economia.unimib.it/repec/pdf/mibwpaper63.pdf
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 63.

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Length: 34 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2003
Date of revision: Nov 2003
Handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:63

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Related research
Keywords: Crime; Education; Inequality; Social Interactions; Unemployment; Youth;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Vittorio Daniele & Ugo Marani, 2008. "Organized Crime and Foreign Direct Investment: The Italian Case," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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