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Organized Crime or Individual Crime? Endogenous Size of a Criminal Organization and the Optimal Law Enforcement

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  • Juin-Jen Chang
  • Huei-Chung Lu
  • Mingshen Chen

Abstract

This article develops a simple but general criminal decision framework in which individual crime and organized crime are coexisting alternatives to a potential offender. It enables us to endogenize the size of a criminal organization and explore interactive relationships among sizes of criminal organization, the crime rate, and the government's law enforcement strategies. We show that the method adopted to allocate the criminal organization's payoffs and the extra benefit provided by the criminal organization play crucial roles in an individual's decision to commit a crime and the way in which he or she commits that crime. The two factors also jointly determine the market structure for crime and the optimal law enforcement strategy to be adopted by a government. (JEL K4) Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Juin-Jen Chang & Huei-Chung Lu & Mingshen Chen, 2005. "Organized Crime or Individual Crime? Endogenous Size of a Criminal Organization and the Optimal Law Enforcement," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(3), pages 661-675, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ecinqu:v:43:y:2005:i:3:p:661-675
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ei/cbi046
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    Cited by:

    1. David Skarbek, 2010. "Putting the "Con" into Constitutions: The Economics of Prison Gangs," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 183-211.
    2. Edwards Griffin Sims, 2014. "The Power of the Racketeer: An Empirical Approach," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, July.
    3. Kyriakos C. Neanidis & Maria Paola Rana, 2014. "Entrepreneurs, Risk Aversion and Dynamic Firms," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 190, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    4. Golz, Michael & D'Amico, Daniel J., 2018. "Market concentration in the international drug trade," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 28-42.
    5. Guha, Brishti & Guha, Ashok S., 2011. "Pirates and traders: Some economics of pirate-infested seas," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 147-150, May.
    6. Antony W. Dnes & Nuno Garoupa, 2010. "Behavior, Human Capital and the Formation of Gangs," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(4), pages 517-529, November.
    7. D’Amato, Alessio & Mazzanti, Massimiliano & Nicolli, Francesco, 2015. "Waste and organized crime in regional environments," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 185-201.
    8. Skarbek, David, 2012. "Prison gangs, norms, and organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 96-109.
    9. Peter T. Leeson & David B. Skarbek, 2010. "Criminal constitutions," Global Crime, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 279-297, August.
    10. Nicholas A. Curott & Alexander Fink, 2012. "Bandit Heroes: Social, Mythical, or Rational?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 470-497, April.
    11. Leeson,Peter T., 2014. "Anarchy Unbound," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107629707.
    12. Deng, Liuchun & Sun, Yufeng, 2017. "Criminal network formation and optimal detection policy: The role of cascade of detection," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 43-63.
    13. Norgaard, Julia R. & Walbert, Harold J. & Hardy, R. August, 2018. "Shadow markets and hierarchies: comparing and modeling networks in the Dark Net," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(5), pages 877-899, October.
    14. Guha, Brishti & Guha, Ashok S., 2012. "Crime and moral hazard: Does more policing necessarily induce private negligence?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 455-459.
    15. Leeson, Peter T., 2010. "Pirational choice: The economics of infamous pirate practices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 497-510, December.
    16. Brishti Guha, 2015. "“Inferiority” complex? Policing, private precautions and crime," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 97-106, February.
    17. Flores, Daniel, 2016. "Violence and law enforcement in markets for illegal goods," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 77-87.
    18. Iain W. Long, 2017. "The Storm Before the Calm? Adverse Effects of Tackling Organized Crime," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(5), pages 541-576, September.
    19. Chang, Juin-Jen & Lu, Huei-Chung & Wang, Ping, 2013. "Search for a theory of organized crimes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 130-153.
    20. Guha, Brishti, 2012. "Pirates and fishermen: Is less patrolling always bad?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 29-38.
    21. Long, Iain W., 2013. "Recruitment to Organised Crime," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2013/10, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    22. Peter T. Leeson, 2007. "An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 1049-1094, December.
    23. Peter T. Leeson & Douglas Bruce Rogers, 2012. "Organizing Crime," Supreme Court Economic Review, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(1), pages 89-123.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior

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