The Economic Analysis of Marine Crime

해상범죄발생의 경제적 원인에 대한 연구

The relatively rapid rising trends of crime rates in marine situations leads to social concerns in Korea. This study reviews some theoretical backgrounds of the economics of crime and apply econometric models to Korean marine crimes. We find that there is a negative relationship between marine crime rates and unemployment rates and positive relationship between price level and marine crime in Korea. And also we find that unemployment elasticities are higher in the 1980s' and price elasticities are higher in th 90's in comparison with the results of the other periods. This findings are incompatible with the previous theoretical researches in advanced countries. This findings show that in rapidly growing economy, marine crime occurrence is proportional to marine economic activity frequency. This result may reflect that marine crimes are different from land crimes.