Crime, Punishment, and the Market for Offenses
从经济学视角解释犯罪，认为犯罪反映个人选择和市场均衡，分析了正负激励对犯罪的影响，并探讨了最优执法策略在效率与公平间的权衡。
Crime is a subject of intense emotions, conflicting ideologies. However, economists have generally explained it as a reflection of individual choice and equilibrating market forces. Two major themes of the literature are outlined: the evolution of a ‘market model’ to explain the diversity of crime across time and space, and the debate about the usefulness of ‘positive’ versus ‘negative’ incentives. Systematic analyses generally indicate that crime is affected on the margin by both positive and negative incentives; there are serious limitations to the effectiveness of incapacitation and rehabilitation; and optimal enforcement strategies involve trade-offs between narrow efficiency and equity considerations.