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Syllabus of a Short Course on the Economics of Crime
The following reading list was developed for a 2-week course on economics
and crime taught for criminologists in the spring of 2002 at the University at Albany by
Shawn Bushway, professor of Criminology
and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland.
Note: For most articles linked below, you must have a subscription to the
online service listed in order to access the article. If you are viewing this page from the
University of Maryland campus, all links should work using the university's subscriptions.
Article Topics
Key Criminology Articles on Rational Choice and Deterrence
Review Article
Nagin, Daniel S. (1998). "Criminal deterrence research at the outset of the Twenty-first century."
Crime and Justice: A Review of Research. 23: 1-42.
Hirschi, Travis (1986). "On the compatibility of rational choice and social control theories of crime," in (eds.)
Derek B. Cornish and Ronald V. Clarke. The Reasoning Criminal: Rational Choice Perspectives on Offending.
Springer-Verlag NY, 105-117.
Clarke, Ronald V. and Marcus Felson (1993). "Introduction: Criminology, Routine Activity and Rational Choice." in (eds.)
Ronald V. Clarke and Marcus Felson. Routine Activity and Rational Choice, Advances in Criminological Theory (Vol.5).
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press, 1993: 1-14.
This paper criticizes the formal economic rational choice model.
Nagin, Daniel and Raymond Paternoster (1994).
"
Personal capital and social control: The deterrence implications of a
theory of individual differences in criminal offending." Criminology 32:581-606.
Available from ProQuest.
Nagin, Daniel S. and Greg Pogarsky (2001).
"
Integrating celerity,impulsivity, and extralegal sanction threats into
a model of general deterrence: Theory and evidence." Criminology 39:865-891.
Available from ProQuest.
Cook, Philip (1986). "The demand and supply of criminal opportunities." Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research 7:1-28
Employment and Crime
Review Articles in Criminology outlets by both Criminologists and Economists
Fagan Jeffrey and Richard Freeman (1999). "Crime and work." Crime and Justice: A Review of Research. 25: 225-290.
Bushway, Shawn and Peter Reuter (2001). "Labor markets and crime." In James Q. Wilson and Joan Petersilia (eds.) Crime:
Public Policies for Crime Control. ICS Press: Oakland CA. p.191-224.
The role of crime prevention programs based on work.
Research Articles by Economists
Cook, Philip and G. Zarkin (1985). "Crime and the business cycle." Journal of Legal Studies 14:115-128.
One of my all time favorite articles because of its simplicity and cleverness.
Freeman, Richard (1996).
"
Why do so many young American men commit crimes and what might we do about it?" The Journal
of Economic Perspectives. 10:25-42.
Available from JStor.
Nagin, Daniel and Joel Waldfogel (1995).
"
The effects of criminality and conviction on the labor market status of
young British offenders." International Review of Law and Economics. 15:109-126.
Available from ScienceDirect.
Levitt, Steven (2001).
"
Alternative strategies for identifying the link between unemployment and crime." Journal of
Quantitative Criminology. 17:377-390.
Available from EBSCO.
Illegal Markets
Schelling, Thomas (1968). "Economics and criminal enterprise." In T. Schelling, Choices and Consequences p.158-178.
Schelling is a world famous economist known for his intuitive description of economic issues. This is a classic article
in the economics literature.
Reuter, Peter and Mark A.R. Kleiman (1986). "Risk and prices: An economic analysis of drug enforcement." Crime and Justice:
An Annual Review of Research 7:289-340.
Perhaps the seminal application of the basic micro-economic model to the issue of drug enforcement.
Discussion about Benefits of Economics
DiIulio, John J. (1996).
"
Help wanted: Economists, crime and public policy." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 10:3-24.
Available from JStor.
McCarthy, Bill. (2002).
"
New Economics of Sociological Criminology." Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 28: 417-442
Available from EBSCO.
Excellent Introduction of the Empirical Approach of Economists
Angrist, Joshua and Alan Krueger (2001).
"
Instrumental variables and the search for identification: From supply and demand to
natural experiments." The Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 15., No. 4. (Autumn 2001). pp. 69-85.
Available from JStor.
Seminal Cost Benefit Articles
Cohen, Mark A.
"
Measuring the Costs and Benefits of Crime and Justice." Chapter in Volume 4 (pp. 263-316): "Measurement and Analysis of
Crime and Justice." Criminal Justice 2000. National Institute of Justice, July 2000, NCJ 182411;
Available from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
Donohue, John J. and Peter Siegelman (1998).
"
Allocating resources among prisons and social programs in the battle against crime."
Journal of Legal Studies 27:1-43.
Available from University of Chicago Press.
Cohen, Mark A., Roland T. Rust, Sara Steen, and Simon T. Tidd (2004).
"
Willingness-to-Pay for crime control programs." Criminology
42:89-109.
Available from ProQuest.
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