Economics of Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economics of Law - Essay Example Thus they might use an accomplice to watch for police, buy more sophisticated equipment to break into cars more quickly, etc. On the other hand, some potential offenders find that the expected reward from crime is less than the expected cost. Similarly, if the opportunity which knocks at the door of offender which costs his devoted time to criminal activity, potential offenders are likely to reduce their criminal activity. The greater the opportunity, the higher would be the cost, thus we expect the supply of crime to decrease when good jobs in the legitimate sector are plentiful, and to increase when unemployment is high. In fact, several studies have confirmed this theory, by showing that crime rises and falls with the business cycle and the ups and downs of the economy. What about the "demand" side of the market Potential victims can take costly actions such as installing burglar alarms, taking cabs instead of walking in high-crime areas, purchasing defensive firearms, and taking lessons in self-defence. All of these activities might affect the potential victim's chances of being victimised. Although potential victims do not actually "demand" crime, they do demand-and devote considerable resources to trying to achieve-reductions in their chances of being victimised. This is the reason for why they "demand" less crime. However according to Kopcke et al (2004) "Workers react this way even if demand declines temporarily" (Kopcke et al, 2004) refers to the notion that even if the local authorities go on with penalties and punishments, that would not completely deter offenders. Similar is the case when offender does not certain preventive measures, one might argue that the action of potential offenders is similar to a "demand" for more crime. Although private individuals become the victims of crime, a large part of the "market" for crime is handled through the public sector. The public sector takes on a lot of these responsibilities because crime reduction has many attributes of a "public" good. Examples of other public goods are national defence and pollution control. A public good is one in which people who "consume" the good cannot exclude others from consuming. Thus although it might be in everyone's best interest to contribute to a private effort to reduce pollution or to decrease the supply of crime, since those who do not contribute still enjoy the benefits of these efforts, many people will 'free ride' off the expenditures of others. Thus the private marketplace would not supply enough of that good if left to market forces, and the government might be able to make all citizens better off by taxing them and providing the services directly. The "supply" of crime is therefore affected only by 'supply' treatment prog rams like law enforcement; corrections etc. One of the most common methods to study the relationship