Crime Chains

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bac, Mehmet
• 署名单位: Sabanci University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20200314
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 680-722
• 关键词: NETWORKS; WAR; methamphetamine; contagion

摘要

How should law enforcement resources be allocated to minimize the harms from flexible, chain-form trafficking organizations? I show that optimal interventions focus on one target, the feeding source (decap-itation) or the revenue-generating tail (amputation). Decapitation dismantles the crime chain under large budgets but induces maxi-mal expansion otherwise, whereas amputation generates a rich set of detection outcomes and limits the chain's size response. A rule of thumb emerges for authorities to target tail segments under small budgets and high detection contiguity, qualified by chain profitability and enforcement parameters. Real-world interventions fail to coor-dinate on such efficient targeting. (JEL K42)