Ethical Limitations on Criminal Participation

Abstract

The paper explores the orthodox economic perspective on criminal participation and recognises its theoretical and empirical successes during its relatively short history. Questions are raised, however, over its conceptual underpinnings and its correspondence with reality. Paradoxically, the economics of criminal participation can neither tell us why we have had so much crime in living memory nor why we should not be currently experiencing far more. It assumes 'criminals are (potentially all of ) us' and that crime is normal. It is argued that there is a need to bring in the moral dimension directly (without reducing it to a mere price) in order to understand why many agents renounce crime and often sacrifice apparent material advantages by doing the right thing. The economics of crime perspective needs to recognise more fully the role of internal as well as external sanctions impacting on behaviour.

Situational logic in social science inquiry: From economics to criminology

“…His 1968 economic approach to crime led to a large literature concerning law and economics, and in turn, to a subjectivist critique of the "orthodox" economic view (Cameron, 1989, Wynarczyk, 2002.…”