Chapter Questions
What is the definition of a public good or service? Name soone oher public goods and services in addition to crime prevention.
What is the free-rider problem? Why does it exist? What are ocher examples of free riders?
What is meant when we say that a public good is indivisible, nonrivalrous, and nonexcludable?
Discuss cost-benefit analysis. What are the benefits of crime prevention? What are the costs? Are all the benefits and costs easily measurable? What should we do when costs or benefits are not quantifiable? Should we base all of our decisions on cost-benefit analysis?
Of what significance is the elasticity of demand for drugs in the debate about legalization of presently illegal substances?
How could taxes be used to regulate legal drug markets? How are excise taxes on drugs similar to excise taxes on cigarettes? Why are excise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol sometimes called "sin taxes"? Do we tax them solely because they are "sins"?
Is it possible to be a social liberd and an economic conservative (or vice versa) with regard to drugs and so-called victimless crines? Be sure that you've read the Viewpodat section carefully.
Go to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Web site (hitip:hwww.fbi gov), locate the Uniform Crime Report, and find the latest statistics on violent crime. Has violent crime increased or decreased in the latest year available?
Go to the Web site for the National Center for Victims of Crime at htipd/www ncverorg. How might this Web site be used by someone who has been a victim of crime?
The Sentencing Project has a Web site at http:i/www. sentencingprojectorg. Try to discover the underlying view of the Sentencing Project tcoward expansion of prisons and incarceration in the United States. What is its view toward gender and rachal issues?
The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice has a Web site at htrp:/iwww-ojp.umdoj.govibjs. Try to find information on the number of prisons and prisoners in the United States.