1 / 56

Social Welfare

Social Welfare. The Impact of Crime on Society. Outline and Issues. Course logistics: http://www.econ.ucsb.edu Criminal Justice System (CJS) & economic paradigm: where do the values (prices) come from to evaluate the states (outcomes) of the CJS? How much crime is there? How do we know?

morey
Download Presentation

Social Welfare

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Social Welfare The Impact of Crime on Society

  2. Outline and Issues • Course logistics: http://www.econ.ucsb.edu • Criminal Justice System (CJS) & economic paradigm: where do the values (prices) come from to evaluate the states (outcomes) of the CJS? • How much crime is there? How do we know? • Crime has two effects: • Redistribution of welfare from the victim to the perpetrator • Opportunity cost or wast of resources for defense

  3. SERIOUSNESS SURVEY RATE THE SERIOUSNESS OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING BEHAVIORS ON A SCALE FROM ZERO( LEAST SERIOUS) TO TEN( MOST SERIOUS): 1. HOMICIDE ___ 2. MASS POISONING ( e.g. TYLENOL) ___ 3. FORCIBLE RAPE ___ 4. ARSON: SET FIRE TO A GARAGE ___ 5. SELLING HEROIN ___ 6. AUTO THEFT ___ 7. EMBEZZLEMENT OF $1,000 ___ 8. PROSTITUTE IN A HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION ___ 9. POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA ___ 10. SNIFFING GLUE ___

  4. Social Welfare The Impact of Crime on Society

  5. Questions about crime • Is crime a real problem or a media induced problem? • Is crime an economic problem? • Are we getting our money’s worth for the dollars we spend on police, jails, and prisons?

  6. Taking Crimes • Robbery • Burglary • Auto Theft • Larceny

  7. How is Crime Measured • Victimization Surveys of Households • U S Dept of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization • Citizen (Victim) Reports to Police • U S Dept of Justice, FBI, Uniform Crime Reports

  8. http://www.fbi.gov/homepage.htm Uniform Crime Reports Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, http://www.albany.edu/ sourcebook

  9. Measures of Crime: Offense Rates • Thefts per 1000 registrations(FBI) = registrations per household* thefts per 1000 households(NCVS) • if registrations per household were growing in the 90’s then thefts per 1000 registrations would not fall as fast as thefts per 1000 households

  10. Crime in California, 2003 http://caag.state.ca.us

  11. Trends In Crime in California Source: Crime and Delinquency in California, 2002 http://caag.state.ca.us/

  12. Violent Crime Mix, CA ‘03

  13. Homicide by Weapon, CA ‘03

  14. California Crime Mix

  15. California Crime Index: Property Crimes

  16. California: Trend in Robberies Per Capita in 90’s

  17. Types of Robberies in California, 1998

  18. California: Armed Robberies, 54% of Total, By Weapon

  19. Sources of Criminal Justice Information On the Internet Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics: http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/ Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/03cius.htm Bureau of Justice Statistics: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ Crime in California, http://caag.state.ca.us/cjsc/pubs.htm California Department of Corrections, http://www.corr.ca.gov/

  20. Two Perspectives On Crime • No Problem • It’s Bad

  21. Crime as Income Redistribution • The Robin Hood Myth • Take from the rich and give to the poor • The impact on social welfare • depends on your views or values • socialist versus a capitalist

  22. Crime as a dead weight loss • Loss of resouces spent on defense • protection of homes • protection of cars • protection of bicycles • Resources spent on defense • could be spent on goods and services • in the absence of crime • The impact on social welfare • Unambiguously bad

  23. What is the nature of crime? • Income redistribution? • or dead-weight loss?

  24. Economists Assume You Know What You Like • Lingo: economists call these consumer tastes or consumer preferences

  25. Thief’s Income Victim’s Income

  26. Thief’s Preferences 1. More is better, greedy 2. Indifferent to victim Thief’s Income High Medium Low Victim’s Income

  27. Economists Assume You Can make Comparisons • For example: the thief can compare a high level of his income and a low level of the victim’s income with a high level of his income and a high level of the victim’s income • in the case just illustrated, the thief values these the same since his income stays the same • the thief does not care whether the victim’s income is high or low, i.e. he is indifferent

  28. Victim’s Preferences 1. more is better, greedy 2. indifferent to the thief Thief’s Income low medium high Victim’s Income

  29. Thief’s Income Income Distribution $6,000 $6,000 Victim’s Income

  30. Thief’s Income Total or Social Income Line: Thief’s + Victim’s Income $12,000 Income Distribution $6,000 $12,000 $6,000 Victim’s Income

  31. Thief’s Income Total or Social Income Line: Thief’s + Victim’s Income $12,000 Income Redistribution $9,000 Income Distribution $6,000 $12,000 $3,000 $6,000 Victim’s Income

  32. Bad effects from taking crimes • Victim has less incentive to be productive • Victim has more incentive to spend time and money on defense • Analogous to war: guns vs. butter • What is society going to produce? • defense against crime? • or goods and services?

  33. Thief’s Income Total or Social Income Line: Thief’s + Victim’s Income $12,000 $11,000 Income Redistribution $9,000 Income Distribution $6,000 $1,000 social cost of defense $11,000 $12,000 $3,000 $6,000 Victim’s Income

  34. Defense Private Public Offense Rate, Damages to Victims Crime Generation Fear Media

  35. Cost to Victims in US, 1993 Source: National Institute of Justice, Victim Costs and Consequences (1996)

  36. Motivation for Violence: Antagonism Assaulters Iso-preference Lines Assaulter’s Income High Total or Social Income Low Victim’s Income

  37. Damages: US Violence, 1993 Source: National Institute of Justice, Victim Costs and Consequences (1996)

  38. Types of Crime • Motivation: self-interest, greed • Street Crimes: robbery, burglary, auto theft, larceny • White Collar: embezzlement, tax evasion, check fraud, telephone fraud • Status Offenses: runaway, truant, vagrant, beyond control of parents • Black Market: gambling, prostitution,drugs

  39. Types of Crime • Motivation: Hate, Rage • Street Crimes: homicide, aggravated assault, rape • Crimes Against Public Order: vandalism, terrorism • Hate Crimes • Columbine High • James Byrd: dragging death in Texas • Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills

  40. 1750 Reported Hate Crimes in California: 1998 Source: Hate Crime in California, 1998

  41. About 2/3 of Hate Crimes are Violent

  42. Sources of Informationp. of syllabus • US Data • Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics • http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/ • Bureau of Justice Statistics • http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/welcome.html

More Related