Should We Abolish the Criminal Law? Imagine a pure tort system ·Problems The victim may not have the resources to prosecute. Some offenses cause diffuse injury Offenders may be judgement proof One could have legal rules making that less likely The state could pay the fine and imprison the offender-still mostly tort Potential victims could commit in advance to buy deterrence,as in 18th c.England The fine for a crime is both the punishment for the criminal and the reward for the victim We want the optimal probability/punishment pair But setting the punishment sets the probability,since it determines the payoff to catching him We cannot separately control two functions with one variable The fancy solution,using profit maximization for an additional constraint,is an article on my web page The simple answer is that the identical problem exists for ordinary tort lawShould We Abolish the Criminal Law? • Imagine a pure tort system • Problems • The victim may not have the resources to prosecute. • Some offenses cause diffuse injury • Offenders may be judgement proof • One could have legal rules making that less likely • The state could pay the fine and imprison the offender—still mostly tort • Potential victims could commit in advance to buy deterrence, as in 18th c. England • The fine for a crime is both the punishment for the criminal and the reward for the victim • We want the optimal probability/punishment pair • But setting the punishment sets the probability, since it determines the payoff to catching him • We cannot separately control two functions with one variable • The fancy solution, using profit maximization for an additional constraint, is an article on my web page • The simple answer is that the identical problem exists for ordinary tort law