Crime and Economics An Introduction

Crime and Economics provides the first comprehensive and accessible text to address the economics of crime within the study of crime and criminology. The economics of crime is an area of growing activity and concern, increasingly influential both to the study of crime and criminal justice and to the formulation of crime reduction and criminal justice policy. As well as providing an overview of the relationship between economics and crime, this book poses key questions such as: What is the impact of the labour market and poverty on crime? Can society decrease criminal activity from a basis of economic disincentives? What forms of crime reduction and methods of reducing re-offending are most cost beneficial? Can illicit organised crime and illicit drug markets be understood better through the application of economic analysis?For those interested in economic methods, but without previous economic training, this book also provides an accessible overview of key areas such as cost-benefit analysis, econometrics and the debate around how to estimate the costs of crime. This book will be key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of criminology and economics and those working in the criminal justice system including practitioners, managers and policy makers.

1.Introduction 2. A Brief Introduction to Economic Theory 3.Modelling Criminal Behaviour4.Rational Choice Theory in Criminology5.The Labour Market, Poverty and Crime 6. Economic Tools: Estimating the Bottom Line of Criminal Justice Intervetions 7. The Costs of Crime8. Crime Reduction9. The Economic Analysis of Prisons and Community Justice Alternatives 10. Organised Crime 11. Illicit Drugs

Kevin Albertson is Acting Head of the Department of Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Chris Fox is Professor of Evaluation in the Department of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University.