Citation

McDonald JF. J. Crim. Justice 1987; 15(3): 245-254.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0047-2352(87)90047-X

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article is a review and extension of the literature on the social welfare analysis of crime and punishment. Gary Becker's seminal article is summarized, and several extensions and criticisms of Becker's model are reviewed. It is shown that the nature of the underlying social welfare function is the crucial assumption in all of the literature. A more general model is then introduced, in which the utilities of victims of crime, criminals, and other citizens have different weights in a social welfare function.