ЕКОНОМСКА АНАЛИЗА КРИМИНАЛА – БЕКЕРОВ МОДЕЛ/ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF CRIME - BEKER'S MODEL

Abstract

Предмет рада је економска анализа криминала са акцентом на Бекеров модел. Разлог за проучавање ове теме је велики значај економског приступа при анализи криминала и криминалног понашања појединаца. Значај Бекеровог доприноса широко је препознат у литератури, након што је објавио рад под називом Злочин и казна: економска анализа. У њему је описана методологија, због чега је он постао продуктиван и утицајан научник. Циљ рада је да размотри Бекеров модел економске анализе права и његово место у еволуцији права и економије.

If there is one economist who can legitimately be called a giant of the discipline on whose shoulders future generations will stand, Becker is a candidate for the title by his enduring application of economics to aspects of everyday life. It changed the nature of the economy and made it relevant to completely new spheres of human life and interaction. This shows his influence, because his methods of economic analysis (which were performed when he introduced them) became tools used by the best researchers in criminology, sociology and other social sciences. Becker transformed the economy by expanding the range of problems that economists look at and creating new analytical frameworks. In this sense, economic analysis of law is an interdisciplinary subject that connects two major areas of research and thus provides greater understanding to both economists and lawyers. Economic theories of criminal behavior are assumptions that criminals, like everyone else, behave rationally. Economists claim that people are attracted to criminal activities because they expect that it is better for them to be included in them than not to be involved. The economic approach implies that criminals do not differ from the general population when it comes to responding to incentives. This approach supports the concept of deterrence by which economists argue that crime will be reduced by increasing the expected costs of illegal activities. Becker claims that the imposition of fines is superior to other types of punishment, primarily because it spends so little money on enforcement and criminal justice. He suggests that the proceeds of fines be used to compensate victims of crime. This proposal imposes a measurement of the damage done by a crime. At first glance, it seems that the application of the criminal law would be even more complex and longer than it already is. However, such issues are regularly determined in civil proceedings. Becker's work states that "optimal policies to combat illegal behavior are part of the optimal application of the law." Becker sees his work as re-establishing the role of economics in the analysis of criminal behavior. Namely, his economic model of crime supports theories of deterrence: by increasing the probability or conviction and raising the level of severity of punishment, the number of crimes committed in society decreases. Studying Becker's position on penal policy, we completely agree with him. Namely, we are of the opinion that a more rigorous penal policy has a preventive character and can influence the reduction of crime. The preventive character is reflected in the general and special crime prevention. The general prevention has the task of deterring potential criminals from committing criminal acts, and the special prevention refers to the resocialization of a specific criminal and improving his behavior so that he would not commit criminal acts in the future. We share the opinion with Becker, who pointed out that the penal policy is a decisive factor in the general prevention of crime, and therefore, the more severe it is, the fewer perpetrators of criminal acts. Becker's main contribution is that he confirmed economic approaches as an alternative to psychological and sociological models of aberration and deviation in the criminology literature. If society has defined certain activities as criminal, Becker argues, then society should choose between criminal justice policies that combine the likelihood of conviction with the severity of punishment to minimize social losses from crime. We can say that the work of Gary Becker from 1968 was extremely successful, because it led to a huge research that enriched the understanding of crime and criminal behavior, which certainly led to significant policy improvements.