Drugs Prices and Systemic Violence (Paperback)

The decreasing trend in homicide rates in the United States of America is also related to the reduction of heroin prices in the US market. This book proposes an empirical analysis of the relation between the heroin and cocaine's prices and the use of violence to administrate these markets. The basic hypothesis is that prices of illegal drugs affect the level of violent crime. An increase (or decrease) in prices would raise (or reduce) the offenders' expected utility of making use of systemic violence. The study analyses the relation between the dynamics of cocaine and heroin's prices and systemic violence in the United States of America over two decades. The study measures the impact of heroin prices on the reduction of homicide rates in the USA. The statistical results confirm the criminal behavioural model hypothesized.