Gary S. Becker was one of the most influential scholars in the history of the economic thought. With his studies, the boundaries of economics expanded from crime to fertility. Some scholars interpret this expansion as the invasion of social sciences by economics and they give it the name of “economic imperialism”. However, the superiority of the economic methodology are questionable because they have several problems, namely over-simplification, lack of historicity, neglecting spatial and cultural differences, and ignoring the role of institutions. Therefore, human behavior can be explained better with not just economics but also with the help of other social science.
In this essay, I’ll try to criticize economic imperialism and A Theory
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This is a problem of allocation of resources. The money the state spends on the fight for illegal behavior is limited, and every enforcement mechanism like prohibition and institutionalization comes with a cost. The best way to reduce this cost is to apply fines wherever possible because it is the least costly to the state and a compensation for victims (Becker 1968, 207-209).
Like in the other articles, the evolution of the enforcement system is not mentioned in this article. Also, fines are not always the optimal solution. For example, the American legal system has changed since the article was written. Lots of prisons are not costly for the state anymore because they are run by private firms. This also changes the social structure. Being criminal is not a choice for someone born in the ghetto. The state constantly pushes poor people of ghettos into prison by accusing them relatively small crimes that can be solved with fines. With this state-private sector cooperation, both state and private firms reduce their costs (Wacquant 2014). On the other hand, every country has their own legal and enforcement system. In European countries, welfare-state practices are historically stronger than any other places in the world, so it hard to encounter this prison
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I give more detail about this study than the others because it also forms a basis for A Theory of