Crime. Analyzing Criminal Decision Making with the Tools of Economics and Criminology
Lecce, Italy
If two disciplines share a topic, one would think that they are in regular contact. A buzzing subdiscipline of economics is working on crime, as is – obviously – criminology. Yet exchange between the disciplines is less established and regular than one might have thought. The symposium was meant to explore the cultural, methodological and paradigmatic differences, and to build a bridge between both traditions. All seven papers were empirical. Most of them focused on the determinants of the decision to commit crime. The discussions revealed substantial scope for collaboration. One particularly promising avenue capitalizes on the behavioral tradition in economics.