Introduction

The UK government is committed to reducing the costs of criminal justice. Specifically they aim to:

This represents an explicit recognition of the budgetary and economic rationale of key criminal justice policy. It is, therefore, unsurprising that the skills and techniques from the discipline of economics have been increasingly used to address this challenge. At its core, economic theory seeks to determine the efficient application of resources to achieve a given goal. In other words, economics is a tool that is applied after the problem has been defined in a socio-political context. From this basic premise, the thrust of this chapter is to highlight the distinction between the morals and values of economics and the morals and values expressed in the way economics is used. Ultimately, we suggest that the choice of an economic approach is itself ideologically based. Notwithstanding, we conclude with a note of broad support for the use of economic evaluation in criminal justice policy – if thoughtfully and carefully applied.

The economic approach

The study of economics arises from the scarcity of resources (Robbins, 1945, p 15). Because resources are limited, it follows that we should use what is available to achieve the best effect. Thus, at its core, economic theory seeks simply to determine the efficient application of resources to achieve a given goal. There are two basic schools of thought within which the application of economic principles to policy decisions may be framed: normative and positivist (Keynes, 1891; Krauss, 2005).

The normative paradigm

Where the normative approach to economics is adopted, economic theory plays a dual role: both the validity of policy goals and the means by which these may be achieved are considered as part of the analysis. The ‘norms’ of society are both informed by and pursued through economic theory.