COMPETITION IN CRIME DETERRENCE

This paper studies competition between jurisdictions in the eradicatio n of crime. In one story, criminals choose the jurisdiction in which t hey will commit their crimes while jurisdictions choose the amount of resources devoted to deterrence to protect local production, In anothe r story, the criminals cannot change jurisdiction but they can rob the owners oi mobile capital. Jurisdictions choose the amount of resource s devoted to the deterrence of local crime so as to secure property ri ghts and to attract capital. In both stories, competition between juri sdictions leads to overdeterrence relative to the Pareto optimal level .