Reports

Less Crime May Be Worse

O'Flaherty, Brendan Andrew

The probability of being a crime victim, conditional on engaging in risky activity, acts like a tax on the risky activity. The higher the probability, the greater the loss to potential victims in consumer surplus. Higher conditional probabilities, however, do not always increase actual crime; sometimes the decrease in risky activity more than offsets the increase in conditional probability. Under these circumstances, less crime is associated with greater welfare loss.

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More About This Work

Academic Units
Economics
Publisher
Department of Economics, Columbia University
Series
Department of Economics Discussion Papers, 674
Published Here
February 25, 2011

Notes

December 1993.