How can economists combat crime?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 economics, maths and sociology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professor Tom Kirchmaier and Dr Magdalena Domínguez, crime economists at the London School of Economics. They are investigating crime from an economic perspective to improve police services.

• This resource also contains an interview with Tom and Magdalena and offers an insight into careers in crime economics. If your students have questions for Tom and Magdalena, they can send them to them online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Tom and Magdalena will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Tom and Magdalena’s research and challenges them to consider what economic and social factors influence people’s decisions to commit crimes.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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