This paper argues that the Economics of Crime concentrates too much on punishment as a policy to fight crime, which is … unwise for several reasons. There are important instances in which punishment simply cannot reduce crime. Several feasible … alternatives to punishment exist, such as offering positive incentives or handing out awards for law abiding behavior. These …

several reasons. On the one hand, there are important instances in which punishment is unable to reduce crime or may even …The economics of crime concentrates on policies in the form of punishments. To adopt such a policy is unwise for …

punishment opportunities are restricted to agents who are linked through alternative punishment networks. We find that the … structure of the punishment network significantly impacts contributions to the public good, but not overall efficiencies …. Contributions collapse over decision rounds in groups with limited punishment opportunities, even if the absolute punishment …

the sanctions against criminal activity, or of the taxation of legal incomes, may weaken the social norm against crime … increase in the crime rate. We show that law enforcement policies may have dramatic and permanent efects on the crime rate, and …

in biology and the social sciences. Recent experimental evidence suggests that altruistic punishment is an important … mechanism to maintain cooperation among humans. In this paper we explore the boundary conditions for altruistic punishment to … maintain cooperation by systematically varying the cost and impact of punishment, using a subject pool which extends beyond the …

increases substantially after introducing an ex post sanctioning possibility. Namely, subjects can assign punishment points to …

play a treatment with punishment, they cooperate less and face higher punishment costs than when first playing a treatment … without punishment. The changes are that drastic that punishment does not pay in the first case, while it does in the later …. Second, for participants first playing without punishment the contributions in the very first period of play determine the …

,007 neighborhoods in the Netherlands, this article tests whether an individual's decision whether or not to be involved in crime is … of this decision, a small positive effect is found on violent crime, but not on property crime. The results suggest that … involved in crime. …

Because costly punishment is not credible, subgame perfection suggests that punishment will not deter free riding … strategies seen in the lab and use the simulation to develop hypotheses about why group size should matter when punishment is … rates no lower than small groups because punishment does not fall appreciably in large groups. However, hindrances to …

In small groups norm enforcement is provided by mutual punishment and reward. In large societies we have enforcement …