TITLE:
Morality, Justice, and Economic Theory of Crime: A Positive-Normative Analysis
AUTHORS:
Felipe Coelho Sigrist, Solange Regina Marin
KEYWORDS:
Morality, Justice, Economic Theory of Crime, Positive-Normative Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
6,
2022
ABSTRACT: This paper aims to discuss
some issues of morality and sense of justice present in the Economic Theory of Crime with the lens of the
methodological positive and normative dichotomy in Economics. There has already
been done some works describing the differences in positive and normative Law
and Economics, but we believe that the
Economics of Crime, considered as a topic inside Law and Economics, has some
specific open and important debates that could be enlightened by the discussion
of positive and normative economics. Through
a literature review of critics of Economic Theory of Crime, we pointed out the main criticized topics
and then use the positive-normative dichotomy in Law and Economics to
analyze how those critics can be interpreted on both perspectives and how both
perspectives are able (or not) to provide a complete and realistic
interpretation of criminal behavior and law enforcement.