Criminal Law and Economics: Some Topics Related to the Cost of Inprisonment, Deterrence and to the Question if Crime Pays

Abstract

The relationships between criminal law and economics are surely of great importance, as the matters related to crime, punishment, reeducation of the prisoners and so on have a great impact on the society. In other words, the crime and its consequences have heavy social costs, both for private citizens and companies, victims of the acts punished by criminal law, and for the State, that has to bear the cost of building and maintaining the prisons, creating some programs of reeducation of the prisoners, keeping a (more or less) efficient system of police and justice.

The aim of this paper is to debate some main topics related to criminal law and economics, with a special attention to the deterrence (starting from the analysis of the number of people in jail and the costs related to it and to public safety in some countries). With regard to deterrence, we will give some possible answers and solution to the question if it is worth to have a criminal law system that tends to be very efficient and whose aim is in practice, and not only in theory, to punish as many criminals as possible.

Keywords: law, economics, criminal, sanctions