Abstract
Expressive crime contrasts with instrumental crime in that delinquents aim to “make a statement”, and not to “make a living”. This difference in motivation has important consequences for the deterrent effect of policies. Whereas policies aiming at expected material costs of perpetrators have often proven successful in deterring instrumental crime, they may fail to deter delinquents with expressive motivations. In some cases, perpetrators may even feel defied to increase their activity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Cameron S (1988) The economics of crime deterrence: a survey of theory and evidence. Kyklos 41:301–323
Kirchgässner G (2011) Econometric estimates of deterrence of the death penalty: facts or ideology? Kyklos 64(3):448–478
Klick J, Tabarrok A (2005) Using terror alert levels to estimate the effect of police on crime. J Law Econ 48(2):267–280
Leroch M (2014) Punishment as defiance: deterrence and perverse effects in the case of expressive crime. CESifo Econ Stud. https://doi.org/10.1093/cesifo/ift009
Opp K-D (1989) The economics of crime and the sociology of deviant behaviour: a theoretical confrontation of basic propositions. Kyklos 42(3):405–430
Robinson PH, Darley JM (2004) Does criminal law deter? A behavioural science investigation. Oxf J Leg Stud 24(2):173–205
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Leroch, M.A. (2019). Crime: Expressive Crime and the Law. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_59
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_59
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7752-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7753-2
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences