CRIME ECONOMICS: CASE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The article deals with a part of institutional economics known as crime economics. The crime economics exploits tools of the economic analysis to clarify behavior of criminals. First, the concept of rational criminal is described, in the agreement with the G. S. Becker theory. According to him, criminals are rationally thinking people who compare costs and returns from a crime. If the costs of breaking of institutions are lower than returns then breaking of rules will pay off. The article also pays attention to expecting costs of crime, which are very low in the Czech Republic. If we want to decrease crime, it is necessary to increase the expecting costs of crime. The crucial part of the article deals with problem of the economic factors influencing crime such as gross domestic product, inflation rate, unemployment rate, average gross monthly wage, public expenditures for safety and public order and the number of policemen. In agreement with economic theory, hypotheses are formulated and verified on data of the Czech Republic from the period of 1993-2015. The regression analysis is used for this purpose.