Cities, as the focused centers for human residence and settlement, are faced with various issues and problems. The high rate of crime and anomic behavior are characteristics of today’s major cities. Fear of crime and anomic behavior is perceived as the most important reasons leading to a decline in the use of public spaces in cities by its residents. According to the mutual relation between env...

This paper examines the optimal use of criminal solicitation as a law enforcement strategy. The benefits are greater deterrence of crime (due to the greater likelihood of apprehension), and the savings in social harm as some offenders are diverted away from committing actual crimes through solicitation. The costs are the expense of hiring undercover cops and the greater likelihood of punishment...

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between social structure and crime in rural counties of the United States. Social structures are assumed to be associated with informal control of crime, and as well, it is assumed that structural changes in rural communities influence changes in the level of informal social control of crime, hence, crime itself. Social disorganization th...

This paper aims at assessing how offenders allocate their effort amongst several crime typologies. Specifically, complementary and substitution effects are tested amongst number of recorded crimes. Furthermore, the extent to which crime is detrimental for economic growth is also tested. The case study is Italy and the time span under analysis is from 1981:1 up to 2004:4. A Vector Autoregressive...

This thesis addresses questions in the Economics of Crime regarding the effect of crime on GDP per capita and its growth rate, and criminal choices. The first part of the thesis presents evidence concerning the effect of crime on economic outcomes in Italy. Using an Instrumental Variables (IV) strategy and a system GMM approach, the empirical exercise identifies the effect of different crimes o...