| Abstract: | The relationship between sociology and economics of crime has been dominated by mutual prejudice and misunderstanding. This paper tries to contribute to a change of this stale of affairs by showing that, on the one hand, the economics of crime does not as a method imply politically conservative policy recommendations and, on the other hand, that insights of the sociology of crime may enrich the economic approach considerably. This is done via a brief survey of the economics of enforcement, the literature on the relation of income distribution and unemployment on crime, and the literature relating sociological theories of crime to methodological individualism. |
