Economic Analysis of Criminal Behavior and Explanation of Deterrence

Economic analysis of criminal law seeks to explain decision-making and behaviour of criminals and potential criminals so as to suggest strategies and mechanisms to decrease criminal behaviour. The thesis of this approach is that the criminals, because of uncertainty of consequences of criminal behaviour, seek to maximize their expected utility and use cost-benefit analysis. So increasing the severity or certainty of punishment can decrease crime rate. In this paper, this claim will be explained and criticized. I conclude that despite of empirical observations, economic man can explain happening of some crimes. Furthermore although the proportional effects of severity and certainty on crime reduction are not certain, in the battle against the crime, economic model can be a punishment-based complement to some of the criminology theories, specially, situational deterrence theory