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The course, taught in English, examines crime and other forms of illegal behaviour through the tools of economic theory. This approach, pioneered by Gary Becker’s seminal work on crime and punishment (1968), has since become one of the main strands of both theoretical and empirical research on crime. Its starting point is the assumption of rational behaviour, whereby criminal activity reflects the benefits and costs associated with it. This framework makes it possible to study and analyse in a structured way the key factors affecting criminal behaviour.
The course will address questions such as: Are criminals rational? How do they respond to changes in the probability of punishment and the severity of sanctions? What factors determine the perceived severity of punishment from the offender’s perspective? What are the social functions and limitations of criminal justice policy? What factors may explain the long-term decline in crime in Europe and the United States? Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to: • understand the key concepts related to crime and criminal justice policy; • have an overview of the current state of knowledge in the main areas of the economics of crime, as well as the major questions that remain open; • evaluate alternative crime-control measures in terms of their effects on criminal behaviour and their broader social consequences; • identify and critically assess empirical research on crime, criminal law, and criminal proceedings. The course is based on a combination of lectures and seminars with active student participation. Each pair of sessions, consisting of a lecture and a seminar, focuses on a specific topic. During the lecture, the instructor formulates a question and presents the analytical framework relevant to answering it, including an appropriate theoretical model and an overview of the existing empirical research on the issue. The lecture will be followed by assigned material for independent study. A selected group of students will be asked to study this material in greater detail, update it in light of recent findings, and prepare an overview and critical summary of the relevant evidence for the other seminar participants. At the beginning of the seminar, these students will present their findings on the question under consideration and, together with the instructor, identify key points for discussion of the individual readings. Poslední úprava: Šicnerová Barbora, Mgr. (16.09.2026)
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1. The examination consists of two parts: · Presentation on one of the course topics (approximately 30 minutes, in groups): 67% · Written examination: 33% 2. The use of legal regulations is not relevant to the written examination. Poslední úprava: Šicnerová Barbora, Mgr. (16.09.2026)
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The course covers the following topics: · Foundations of the rational choice approach to crime · Crime and the certainty of punishment · Severity of punishment I: fines and efficient punishment · Severity of punishment II: imprisonment and crime · Severity of punishment III: capital punishment and crime · Immigration and crime · Racial bias and the criminal justice system · Private deterrence of crime · The War on Drugs · Behavioural approaches to crime and punishment · Economists and crime Poslední úprava: Šicnerová Barbora, Mgr. (16.09.2026)
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Required literature: 1. Winter, H. 2008. The Economics of Crime: An Introduction to rational crime analysis. Routledge. Recommended literature: 1. Becker, Gary S. 1968. Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach. Journal of Political Economy 76: 169 -217. 2. Cook, P. J., Ludwig, J, and McCrary, J. 2011. Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs. University of Chicago Press. 3. Posner, Richard. 2014. Economic Analysis of Law. 9th ed. New York: Wolters Kluwer. 4. Posner, Richard. 1985. An economic theory of the criminal law. Columbia Law Review 85: 1193–1231. 5. Andreoni, James. 1991. Reasonable Doubt and the Optimal Magnitude of Fines: Should the Penalty Fit the Crime? RAND Journal of Economics 22: 385–95. 6. Basu, Kaushik. 2011. Why, for a Class of Bribes, the Act of Giving a Bribe should be Treated as Legal. Government of India, Department of Economic Affairs Working Paper No. 1/2011. 7. Brabenec, Tomáš, and Josef Montag. 2018. Criminals and the Price System: Evidence from Czech Metal Thieves. Journal of Quantitative Criminology 34: 397-430. 8. Bronsteen John, Christopher Buccafusco, and Jonathan Masur. 2009. Happiness and punishment. University of Chicago Law Review 76:1037–1082. 9. Di Tella, R. and E. Schargrodsky. 2004. Do police reduce crime? Estimates using the allocation of police forces after a terrorist attack. American Economic Review 94:115–133. 10. Donohue III, John J., and Steven D. Levitt. The impact of legalized abortion on crime. Quarterly Journal of Economics 116: 379-420. 11. Draca, Mirko, Theodore Koutmeridis, and Stephen Machin. 2019. The Changing Returns to Crime: Do Criminals Respond to Prices? Review of Economic Studies 86: 1228–1257 12. Dušek, Libor, and Josef Montag. 2017. The Trade-offs of Justice: A Theory of the Optimal Use of Alternative Criminal Procedures. Working paper, Charles University. Online at ssrn.com/abstract=2812559. 13. Dušek, Libor, and Josef Montag. 2016. The Effects of a Simpler Criminal Procedure: Evidence from One Million Czech Cases. Working paper, Charles University. Online at ssrn.com/abstract=2629116. 14. Dušek, Libor, Nicolas Pardo, and Christian Traxler. 2020. Salience, Incentives, and Timely Compliance: Evidence from Speeding Tickets. Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods Discussion Paper no. 2020/9. 15. Dušek, Libor, and Christian Traxler. 2020. Learning from Law Enforcement. CESifo Working Paper No. 8043. 16. Easterbrook, Frank. 1983. Criminal Procedure as a Market System. Journal of Legal Studies 12: 289–332. 17. Felson, M. and R. V. Clarke. 1998. Opportunity makes the thief: Practical theory for crime prevention. Police Research Series Paper no. 98, Home Office, London. 18. Garoupa, Nuno, and Stephen, F. H. (2008). Why plea-bargaining fails to achieve results in somany criminal justice systems: A new framework for assessment. Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 15: 323. 19. Givati, Yehonatan. 2014. Legal Institutions and Social Values: Theory and Evidence from Plea Bargaining Regimes. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 11: 867-893. 20. Gray, David. 2010. Punishment as suffering. Vanderbilt Law Review 63: 1619–1693. 21. Klick, J. and A. Tabarrok (2005). Using terror alert levels to estimate the effect of policeon crime. Journal of Law and Economics 48: 267–279. 22. Kolber Adam J. 2009. The subjective experience of punishment. Columbia Law Review 109: 182–236. 23. Landes, William M. 1971. The Economics Analysis of Courts. Journal of Law and Economics 14: 61-107. 24. Levitt, Steven D. 2004. Understanding why crime fell in the 1990s: Four factors that explain the decline and six that do not. Journal of Economic Perspectives 18: 163-190. 25. Levitt, Steven D. 1998. Juvenile Crime and Punishment. Journal of Political Economy 106: 1156-1185. 26. Listokin, Yair. 2007. Crime and (with a lag) punishment: the implications of discounting for equitable sentencing. American Criminal Law Review 44: 115–140. 27. Massoglia, Michael. 2008. Incarceration as exposure: the prison, infectious disease, and other stress-related illnesses. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 49:56–71. 28. Montag, Josef. 2014. A Radical Change in Traffic Law: Effects on Fatalities in the Czech Republic. Journal of Public Health 36: 539-545. 29. Montag, Josef, and Tomáš Sobek. 2019. Subjective Disutility of Punishment. In Marciano, Alain and Giovanni Battista Ramello, eds. Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. New York: Springer. 30. Montag, Josef, and Tomáš Sobek. 2014. Should Paris Hilton Receive a Lighter Prison Sentence Because She's Rich? An Experimental Study. Kentucky Law Journal 103: 95-125. 31. Nagin, D. S. 2013. Deterrence: A review of the evidence by a criminologist for economists. Annual Review of Economics 5: 83-105. 32. Rizzolli, Matteo, and Margherita Saraceno. 2011. Better That Ten Guilty Persons Escape:Punishment Costs Explain the Standard of Evidence. Public Choice 155: 395–411. 33. Tonry, M. 2014. Why crime rates are falling throughout the Western world. Crime and Justice 43: 1–63. Poslední úprava: Šicnerová Barbora, Mgr. (16.09.2026)
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· Students will be able to explain the characteristics of a rational offender, calculate expected punishments, and identify problems associated with these calculations. · Students will be able to interpret empirical findings, summarize the academic literature on crime, police force size, and policing technologies, and identify the costs and benefits of fines and reputational sanctions as forms of punishment. · Students will be able to define the deterrent and incapacitation effects of punishment, distinguish how each of them affects the optimal length of imprisonment, and describe their estimated effects according to the academic literature. · Students will be able to analyse theoretical and empirical findings on capital punishment as a means of deterring crime, identify methodological problems in empirical studies on this topic, and calculate the social costs of punishment. · Students will be able to compare empirical findings on the relationship between immigration and crime in the United States and Europe, with a focus on how the results differ according to the status of documented migrants, unauthorized migrants, and asylum seekers or refugees. · Students will be able to distinguish between statistical discrimination and taste-based discrimination and place both concepts in the context of the literature on racial profiling and bias. · Students will be able to explain the social policy debate surrounding the “War on Drugs,” drawing on evidence about how drug users respond to prices and how prices respond to supply-reduction policies. · Students will be able to describe how behavioural economics differs from traditional economics, identify ambiguities in calculations of expected punishment for rational actors, and explain the role of time inconsistency. Poslední úprava: Šicnerová Barbora, Mgr. (16.09.2026)
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To enroll in the course, students are advised to have completed the course Law and Economics I (or a similar introductory microeconomics course) and to have either completed or be enrolled in the course Law and Economics II.
Poslední úprava: Šicnerová Barbora, Mgr. (16.09.2026)
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