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 posi tive-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.
KeywordsMoralityJusticeEconomic Theory of CrimePositive-Normative Analysis
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