What is the relevance of combining the topic of criminal behavior with economic theory?

Combating crime is an ongoing public policy issue which impacts our behavior and our pocketbooks, while economic theory provides a set of analytical tools useful for discussing and solving some of the most pertinent issues of the day. In The Economics of Criminal Behavior: A Survey of Selected Topics, these two areas are brought together by reviewing specific criminal activity as it relates to our market structure. Criminal behavior involving topics such as airport profiling, illegal immigration, white-collar crime, and the illegal drug trade is chronicled and examined from an economic perspective. The book includes analyses by an array of prominent economists including Gary Becker, Philip Cook, Isaac Ehrlich, Milton Friedman, and Steven Levitt, and provides insight from the perspective of both crime prevention and the criminal.

The Economics of Criminal Behavior is appropriate for courses in economics, criminal justice, and other social policy studies.