BARRY MacKenzie’s expressive simile “”dry as a crow’s armpit” jumped to mind last week as I skipped through the Centre for Independent Studies’ latest publication: The Economic Theory of Crime.
“”Dries” were those left over after Mrs Thatcher had wrung all the “”wets” from her Cabinet. Now the are on the retreat as politicians have discovered voters like a little humanity. It was therefore refreshing to discover that some people are still able to propound such unremittingly dry theories as The Economic Theory of Crime. It subjects crime to the rigours of economic cost-benefit analysis with graphs of supply and demand and comes up with some intelligent debunking of the no-fault theories that blame crime on society, upbringing, pathological compulsion and anything else other than the criminals deliberate decision to engage in crime.
Continue reading “1992_12_december_column14”