The Economics of Violence
How Behavioral Science Can Transform our View of Crime, Insurgency, and Terrorism

Using behavioral economics, we can change how we perceive the threats to our safety and security faced today and better inform the institutions of our future.

Gary M. Shiffman (Author)

9781107092464, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 January 2020

242 pages, 2 b/w illus. 1 map
23.5 x 15.6 x 1.6 cm, 0.51 kg

'The Economics of Violence: How Behavioral Science Can Transform our View of Crime, Insurgency, and Terrorism is a model of meticulous scholarship that is expertly organized and effectively presented. An impressively informative contribution to our on-going national dialogue, especially given the dramatic impact that the pandemic is having on both the American and the Global economies … It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, governmental policy makers, and non- specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that …' James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review

How do we understand illicit violence? Can we prevent it? Building on behavioral science and economics, this book begins with the idea that humans are more predictable than we like to believe, and this ability to model human behavior applies equally well to leaders of violent and coercive organizations as it does to everyday people. Humans ultimately seek survival for themselves and their communities in a world of competition. While the dynamics of 'us vs. them' are divisive, they also help us to survive. Access to increasingly larger markets, facilitated through digital communications and social media, creates more transnational opportunities for deception, coercion, and violence. If the economist's perspective helps to explain violence, then it must also facilitate insights into promoting peace and security. If we can approach violence as behavioral scientists, then we can also better structure our institutions to create policies that make the world a more secure place, for us and for future generations.

Introduction
1. Violence
2. The human condition
3. Organized crime
4. Insurgency
5. Terrorism
6. The rise of the Islamic State in al Qaeda's market
7. Conclusions and prescriptions.

Subject Areas: Behavioural economics [KCK], Terrorism, armed struggle [JPWL], International relations [JPS], Causes & prevention of crime [JKVC]