La teoria racional del crimen: una aplicación de Gary Becker en Bogota, D.C. (The Rational Theory of Crime: Applications by Gary Becker in Bogotá, D.C.)
Journal Criterio Libre, Vol. 9, No. 14, 2011
34 Pages Posted: 7 Mar 2014
Date Written: June 30, 2011
Abstract
Spanish Abstract: El documento analiza las políticas públicas de seguridad en la ciudad de Bogotá, formuladas sobre la premisa de que existe una correlación entre la criminalidad y las llamadas causas objetivas del conflicto. No obstante, la evidencia empírica que arroja la revisión bibliográfica demuestra que dicha relación no es significativa. Para demostrarlo se desarrolla un modelo de comportamiento criminal, que explica el fenómeno como una competencia en la que los delincuentes compiten entre sí formando una estructura que mejora la productividad de la cadena criminal. De esta manera se elimina el problema del riesgo moral. Esta última idea constituye la hipótesis central del texto que pretende rebatir las causas objetivas de la conducta criminal para efectos de análisis de la seguridad ciudadana. Cabe aclarar que la evidencia empírica es preliminar debido a que no se logró tener acceso a la base de datos de la Policía Nacional, ni a la encuesta de victimización de 2003, esta última declarada reserva estadística por parte del gobierno de Colombia. Por último, el texto pretende abrir el debate acerca de la forma en que se debe evaluar la política criminal.
English Abstract: This document analyzes the public security policies in the city of Bogotá, formulated on the premise that there is a correlation between criminality and the so called “objective causes of the conflict”. In spite of the empirical evidence of the bibliographic review, it shows that the correlation is not significant. In order to demonstrate this, a behavioral criminal model was developed to explain the phenomenon as a competition in which delinquents compete among themselves forming a structure that improves the productivity of the criminal network. This way, the risk of a moral issue is eliminated. The latter idea is the central hypothesis of the article that pretends to refute the objective causes of criminal conduct in order to analyze citizen security. It is worth clarifying that the empirical evidence is preliminary because it was impossible to access neither the National Police data base, nor the 2003 victimization survey which was declared a booking statistics by the Colombian Government. Lastly, this article pretends to open a debate about the way in which the criminal policy must be assessed.
Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.
Keywords: Criminality, Crime index, rational theory of crime, tournament theory, risk aversion
JEL Classification: A12, B21, C61, C73
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation