Lecture 4: Criminal Law

Question 1

What are the costs of crime?

Answer 1

The actual damage (Harm to victim - Gain to criminal)
Prep and training of the crime
Apprehension & Conviction & Protection
Punishment cost

Question 2

Is a fine or imprisonment better?

Answer 2

Imprisonments imposes costs on other member of society, funding their life in prison and guards etc whereas fine is a direct transfer.

Although equity issue where fine is regressive so rich pay to stay out of jail

Question 3

What is the optimal level of crime?

Answer 3

Not zero

MC = MB (all of law enforcement)

Question 4

Same rational law abider as p5

Answer 4

okay

Question 5

Draw the graphs of gain and penalty for risk seekers, averters and risk neutral criminals - what is optimal to prevent crime by risk seekers?

Answer 5

Risk seekers dont care much about expected value, but respond well to increased probability of being caught so need to balance that

Question 6

What are type 1 and 2 errors? What did Becker say about it

Answer 6

1: Convicting an innocent person
2: Letting a guilty person go free

Becker - on efficacy grounds, claimant should show it is more likely their claim is true, so lower standard which increases type 1 but decreases type 2 error - provides economic framework disagreeing with the philosophical one of Blackstone “Better to let 10 guilty people go free (Type 2) than convict 1 innocent”