Crime Chains

Mehmet Bac

American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 680-722

Abstract: 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 (decapitation) or the revenue-generating tail (amputation). Decapitation dismantles the crime chain under large budgets but induces maximal 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 coordinate on such efficient targeting.

JEL-codes: K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1257/mic.20200314

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