Researching the Economics of Crime

Michael Zakaria, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Economics and minor in Philosophy

In writing my paper “The Economics of Crime”, I learned quite a lot about the economic nature of crime and its factors, and I had to throw out quite a few ideas I thought I knew about. I was especially surprised to discover that crime rates were essentially unaffected by harsher prison sentences. The supposition that criminals aren’t typically aware of the law could account for that, but it would be interesting to see more research on that topic. 

As research in this field continues, I imagine studies will continue to focus on the efficacy of various remedies for crime. This is mostly because while understanding the motives behind crime is important, applying that knowledge via legislation, changes in policing, etc. are more direct and easier to observe. I think the focus will be on the execution rather than the more theoretical side. 

To further develop the project, I would continue exploring other alleged variables that weren’t covered in the paper, such as race and culture. I would also consider revisiting some variables whose relationships with crime weren’t entirely clear, such as GDP. In these instances, there was a potential relationship that would be worth studying further, but the relationship wasn’t particularly consistent or straightforward, and it may have been a bit too technical for the purposes of this paper.

I think the paper covered a lot of ground and was pretty thorough, and I would be interested in expanding on it.