Economists of the Public Choice School have argued that compensation payments to victims of crime will increase the crime rate. This proposition is examined by estimating crime supply functions for rape and aggravated assault in which the expected probability and magnitude of compensation...

A cross‐section of 1980 US data on the prison population and its rate of inflow is examined. Regression analysis is used to investigate the impact of prison overcrowding, race, crime and unemployment on the above variables. Racial composition and overcrowding are found to have significant...